Love & Blood
Backstory:
In Warriors: The Five Clans, there has just been a Gathering at Fourtrees. The ThunderClan leader and the WindClan leader, Inkstar and Hailstar, have had a disagreement and are keeping their two clans waiting as they argue. Falconstar, the dead Thunderclan leader, was murdered, and tonight the murderer is abroad in the forest. Other predators are waiting as well. Goldenfur, the ThunderClan deputy, is about to find this is a very real danger, as well as a few other cats…
Death, lies, suspense, secrets, betrayal, love, and blood.
Tonight, the world of the Five Clans changes forever.
Written by: Plafica, Cold, Fee (me), Inky, Lucky, and Nightpelt
Mistfur sighed, and caught sight of the moon.
"It's getting late," he murmured.
"It is..." Goldenfur didn't like it anymore. He had to find Falconstar's murderer, tonight. Perhaps, if the murderer was not BloodClan, that Clan could redeem themselves a bit. He had to know. He got up, and mewed, "I'm going back to camp. I want to be sure that the Clan is safe... there are not a lot of warriors guarding it, after all." Mistfur nodded as Goldenfur left.
He padded into the forest. He felt better. It wasn't crowded, or filled with innocent cats. Perhaps StarClan was playing a trick on him, because the ThunderClan forest still felt like home. His paws carried him towards Falconstar's grave. He paused. It was silent. He sat down, nose touching the dirt below him, and prayed. He prayed that Falconstar would watch over his Clan, that the future would be brighter than it seemed, and that everything was just a horrible mistake.
Jackal watched the golden tom, sitting by the grave of the foolish leader she had killed. She had found him. Around her, the nightingales and owls had become silent and the wind had stopped rustling.
The time had come, the perfect moment to begin. He was obviously afraid...just the way Jackal liked them. Her red eyes glittered, and a low hiss escaped her mouth. A hint of happiness was in her tone, but yet it sounded menacing.
"You're here."
Goldenfur swirled around, trying to locate the voice, his heart pounding. Where was it?
"Yes..." he growled slowly, "I'm here. But who are you?" He began to shake as a strong scent hit him. He didn't recognize it at all. He got to his paws, ready to defend himself.
"Just someone," hissed Jackal softly, removing herself from the shelter of the bushes and emerging behind the golden tom.
"DON'T move," she growled. "If you turn around I will rip you entrails out and feed them to you." Then she paused. She spoke softer now, but with a hint of poison in her voice. Her red eyes glowed.
"Is this where you really want to be?"
Goldenfur froze. His heart almost stopped, and his leg turned to stone. Fear constricted his throat, but he managed to mumble, "What do you mean, 'Is this where you really want to be'? Can't I pray for my dead leader?" He was becoming angry at that thought, and his throat cleared.
"Why?" snorted Jackal, narrowing her eyes to slits. "You can't help him now. He's gone." She smiled wickedly and lowered her voice to a sweeteningly poisonous tone. "Much like you thought your past was."
Goldenfur gasped, eyes widening with terror.
"How do you know?" he stared down at his paws. This she-cat whom he still couldn't see knew more about himself than he knew. She knew his past. "What about it?" He growled.
"You mean you don't know?" Jackal hissed, faking concern. She lowered her skinny body into a crouch. Her red eyes gleamed wickedly. "You came from BloodClan. Like I." She grinned again.
"I think I know I'm from BloodClan..." He murmured to his "Clanmate". He hid his surprise, on account of his fear of the she-cat. Of course, he thought bitterly, She's BloodClan. She'd know all about me, wouldn't she? The secret was out. He felt like all the birds and mice and voles heard it, and they would spread it around. He was BloodClan. Pure BloodClan lineage.
"Hmm. You might know you're from Bloodclan, but you don't know the story, do you?" she said, again in that poisonously sweet hiss. Then her voice switched to a coldly calculated, smooth growl.
"Your father and your mother were fools. They both died because of it. My father killed your father, and I killed your mother. You were hidden in a bush nearby, and I would have killed you too. But now..." She straightened up, and her voice switched to a rasp again. "Maybe it's good I didn't kill you."
Goldenfur jerked, as though waking from a bad dream. "You... killed my mother? You'd kill a Clanmate?" He growled, anger causing his fur to rise. "What made them fools?" He dared to look up at the sky, eyes fixed on the stars above. His parents - his true parents - were up there. Why hadn't his ThunderClan foster-mother told him he was an orphan? Why?
"They were fools," she hissed, "because they had you. Your father never fought, and neither did your mother. During the day of the battle between the four clans and mine, your mother brought you with her and hid you. After the battle she planned on escaping to one of the Clans. I caught her. I killed her. You lived. It's that simple." She said the last three words slowly, relishing the thought of the tom's anguish and fear at her.
She saw his head tip up. "Don't look back," she seethed, in her ice-cold rasp.
Goldenfur lowered his head sharply, and gasped. His parents did not fight for their Clan? Well, he thought bitterly, They were right not to fight for these murderers. He narrowed his eyes in deep thought. Then he dared to gamble his question.
"Why can't I look at you, she-cat?"
Starpaw looked up at the stars and then to her brother. He sensed it too. She looked toward the entrance of the camp; he got up and nodded at her.
The siblings snuck out of the ThunderClan camp.
They stopped in the middle of the forest. Both apprentices knew that if they needed help no one would be able to come to their aid. Both were ready to take the risk.
"So, my kits…you have come." A voice purred, but the tone was cold.
"What do you want with us, rogue?" Starpaw hissed, her back arched and her fur bristling. Sunpaw's fur bristled as he looked at his father.
"Why, to fulfill the prophecy to kill you!" Twoside hissed. Three former BloodClan cats came out of the shadows and were at his side in an instant.
"It is you who shall be killed!" Starpaw said, flexing her claws.
"So full of fire…just like your mother." Twoside growled as he lunged at her. Starpaw rolled away.
"Watch out!" Sunpaw yowled as a BloodClan cat crept up behind his sister. He clawed it in the face, and it fled. Sunpaw and Starpaw fought side by side, but in the blur of cats Starpaw lost sight of her brother. She bit her father's ear and clawed his muzzle, forcing him to call a retreat.
"Sunpaw, we did it!" Starpaw panted.
Her eyes widened in shock she saw her brother's bloody body lying on the ground, unmoving. She rushed over to him.
"Sunpaw, wake up," she murmured sadly as she nudged him. He remained still. She put her ear to his chest.
No pulse.
"No...Sunpaw!" She yowled, tears filling her eyes. She hoped someone in Thunderclan would hear them.
Jackal was surprised by the tom's courage. "Because I haven't said so yet," she chuckled. "And now, because you have learned the truth, I have something else to tell you."
Far off in the forest, a cry was heard. Jackal's ear twitched and she turned her head, her red eyes piercing the darkness. Something had happened. She turned back to look at the tom, waiting for his reaction to her edict.
Goldenfur let a hiss filled with terror and fear escape his lips: "Starpaw!" He was about to swirl around and follow the sound, to protect his apprentice, his friend, but he couldn't.
The she-cat would kill him.
ThunderClan was suffering enough heartbreak as it was. He glared at the tree ahead of him. It was his fault. If he hadn't had left the Gathering, Starpaw wouldn't have slipped back to camp, just like she wanted to. If he hadn't allowed himself to be bullied by this BloodClan cat, he could turn around and save Starpaw. But he couldn't.
He asked coldly, his voice full of anguish and hatred, "What is your name, she-cat?" Then in an even softer, sadder voice, he whispered, "Let me help my apprentice."
Jackal's eyes narrowed and shined even brighter. "Tough," she murmured in her raspy voice, slinking closer towards him until she was right behind him. She hissed in his ear, "You are my kind. You could be great."
Goldenfur stared straight ahead, eyes fixed on something far away. He narrowed his eyes, deep in thought. 'You are my kind'.
Why didn't you tell me?, he thought in anguish, Why didn't you say I was not a ThunderClan cat, Thinfur? Why didn't Falconstar not tell me? Why? He was suddenly enraged. Screams of terror and pain clouded his thoughts, and images of Quartzkit, Starpaw, Sunpaw, Blackstripe, and Falconstar flowed swiftly like a hurricane in his minds.
A low growl started in his throat. He had to get to Starpaw. A cloudy Mossfur and Blackstripe entered his vision. Emeraldeyes was there, too, as well as Inkstar. They looked pained. They were all the cats he trusted the most, and who returned that trust and respect and...and friendship. What would happen if he died right there? If he turned around?
You were like this, too, Winterflower...He knew right then and there how much Inkstar hated Winterflower. He knew why she needed to kill the white cat.
His claws sank deeply into the ground. He was growling madly. "You will let me go, she-cat. I may be like you in blood, but I'll never be a murderer like you! Give me your name, before I'm forced to turn around and find out myself," he hissed coldly. He was shocked by his own voice: the hatred was pure and real, and it pained his heart to speak.
Jackal laughed in her throat. "You are not going to make this easy, are you?" She slapped him across the face with her paw, her blade-sharp claws raking across his cheek and leaving four identical scratches ripping through his fur. He still wasn't facing her.
"You call me a murderer," she hissed in his ear, and then began to pace around him in a circle and allowing him to get a full look at her. "And you order me around, telling me to give you my name." She stopped in front of him and looked him right in the eye.
"Say anything of that sort again, and those scratches on your cheek will run longer and deeper along the length of your stomach." She kept her eerie red eyes locked with his as she continued to walk around him, slowly. "But you're stronger now...Bolt." She spat the last word, wondering if he would recognize it.
Starpaw lay beside her brother's dead body sobbing, as scared as a kit. She wished for his warmth once more, and she wanted her mother or Goldenfur to appear and make it all go away.
It's all a dream…it's all a terrible dream…
Down on the RiverClan border, Silverwing's ears perked as he heard Starpaw's cry. Without thinking, he raced to the stepping-stones and jumped across, hurtling towards the dark forest to her despondent wail. There, he found the silver apprentice lying near her brother's bloody body.
He approached her and touched her shoulder gently with his nose. Starpaw looked up.
"What are you doing here?" she hissed.
"I thought you were in trouble," he whispered softly.
"He's dead!" Starpaw sobbed. Silverwing licked her soothingly in an attempt to calm her.
Rainstorm jerked out of a doze as she heard yowls of terror coming from the forest. She pricked up her ears.
Why isn't the rest of the Clan back from the Gathering yet? She wondered desperately. What is going on? Rainstorm got up, looking around for the cat in charge of camp, intending to ask if she could go investigate.
Emeraldeyes looked up as she sniffed the air for the scent of her children. On top of that, where was Goldenfur or Blackstripe? She padded up to Rainstorm.
"Rainstorm, have you seen Starpaw or Sunpaw?" she asked worriedly.
Nearby, the warrior Twigclaw jerked his head up. He knew that voice…"S-Starpaw?" He stammered, fur rising. "Was it her? Oh, No, no, no…"
This was always how Twigclaw handled situations: freaking out.
"We gotta go help!" He mewed in Rainstorm's direction. "I'm not in charge of camp but--come on!" He charged shakily into the gorse tunnel, ears pricked.
Rainstorm ignored Emeraldeyes, pushed past Twigclaw in a panic, and bounded into the forest. Twigclaw followed her cautiously. She tasted the air, picking up the scent of Starpaw, Sunpaw - and blood. She pushed on through the undergrowth, until she came to Starpaw sitting near her brother's body. Rainstorm felt herself go weak. "Sunpaw..." she whispered.
Twigclaw gaped when he saw the two apprentices. "S-sta-…Sunpaw..wha..." Was all that could come out. His eyes where huge in fear and sorrow. His sandy pelt was now rested, but his ears were flat against his skull, as if the killer would come out in any moment.
Goldenfur hissed with pain, his cheek stinging. His claws dug deeper into the ground to stabilize himself and to keep him from lashing out. She came into view.
He gulped. She was frightening: bony, ragged, and red. Those piercing copper-and-red eyes burned his soul. He kept his gaze, though, his jaws clenching. He mustn't show her he was afraid. He had to show her he was as tough as she was. He wouldn't grant her the chance to see his fear or lack of toughness as a weakness, and attack.
He growled softly: Bolt. He recalled it...Scourge had called him that in his dream. Bolt must have been his name before he was taken into ThunderClan.
"I am stronger..." he growled, "...I have a will - a free will. And I will go and help my apprentice now." He took a side-step towards the trees, no longer afraid of death. She was trespassing on his friends' territory. He was shamed by an awful bloodline.
He didn't care anymore if that blood was shed.
If it's a fight this she-cat wants, then a fight she will get!
That was when Jackal made her move. She flung herself at Goldenfur, smashing him against the forest floor. Her thin yet powerful figure loomed over him. The tightly bunched muscles beneath her ragged pelt quivered. She put a paw on his neck.
"You have free will as long as you're alive," she hissed softly, like a teakettle, "But I can make life worse than death." She showed her teeth as she growled.
"I only know you as Bolt, but not your other name." She lifted up a paw slightly and let her claws inch their way out...sharp and deadly as swords. Same as her words. She kept her gaze fixed on him.
Revenge for her father was near.
Inkstar sighed, padding out of her den. Her glossy black fur glimmered in the dim sunlight, and her emerald eyes seemed to be... dazed, misty. She was deep in thought. As usual...
After a moment or so, she snapped back into reality and away from her thoughts, and her ears pricked as she scanned camp. Where was Goldenfur? She sniffed, and then shrugged to herself. No need to worry. She spotted Arrowheart a few fox-lengths away, looking quite bored.
"Arrowheart," she meowed, stepping towards her. "Could you please keep an eye on camp? I'm going out for a walk." The golden she-cat nodded, and then Inkstar turned and walked off, brushing pass the bushes that surrounded the camp. A few moments slipped by as she found herself wandering off to nowhere... Just thinking to herself.
Another dream came to her.
A black cat. As black as she was, but simply pure-black. A brief flicker of red eyes. Another cat was there, that seemed vaguely familiar, and then... Sweetflower, Inkstar's deceased sister. She had dreamed of the black cat before, many times, but now she was taking the dreams seriously. Something was wrong, she could feel it. For some reason, she felt that Winterflower was closer than ever...somewhere out there, lurking... And, now this. She sighed quietly, lifting her head to look around, searching for any eyes that may be watching her.
Blackstripe shuddered. Goldenfur was gone, and Starpaw and Sunpaw were missing. She shuddered again. She had to find them.
She was making her way to the gorse tunnel, her smoke-grey and black pelt shimmering in the sun. Inkstar was leaving. She debated whether or not to follow her black leader, whether or not to ask her about Goldenfur's odd behavior. She decided not to as Inkstar padded off. Instead, she left camp to hunt.
It'll take my mind off of things, she decided.
She followed the scent of mouse, away from Inkstar. She stopped dead, suddenly, and the mouse saw her and scurried away.
Starpaw... Sunpaw... blood! Her thoughts cried as she analyzed the scent. She bolted towards the scent, her heart and mind racing. And then... she stopped again.
Sunpaw lay in a pool of blood at his sister's paws. A foul smell hung in the air. She ignored the RiverClan tom, and ran up to Sunpaw, tears stinging her eyes.
"What... happened..." She managed to squeeze out.
"YOU!" Twigclaw all of the sudden burst out, turning to Silverwing. He had just noticed the RiverClan tom.
Blackstripe's amber eyes became dull. She mewed softly with an empty voice, "No, Twigclaw. Sunpaw's fur doesn't smell like a RiverClan cat attacked."
She stared down at the small apprentice who barely got the chance to live, and scolded, "It's all my fault! I never taught him to fight, never had the chance. If only he knew... then he could have not been hurt..." She felt a tear run down her smoke-grey cheek.
"Brownstripe and... and Brightpaw aren't present..." She buried her nose into the orange cat's fur, shaking with tears. The medicine cat and his apprentice would be no use to her apprentice now.
Starpaw summoned the courage to speak up. "He didn't do it," the she-cat said, looking towards Silverwing. "Our father, a BloodClan cat called Twoside, killed him... he ambushed us…I lost him when two of the other cats jumped on me. I was able to claw Twoside in the face and make him a retreat, but when they were gone… I looked over..."
She was no longer able to continue as she stared at her brother's dead body. Tears filled her gray blue eyes.
Silverwing excused himself and got to his paws, not wanting to cause trouble. He decided to explain himself as well: "I heard her yowl. I thought she was in trouble, but by the time I made it to her it was too late..."
The warrior bowed his silver head, his sky blue eyes holding regret that he had not been there in time.
Goldenfur felt the breath escape his lungs as he was flung to the floor. The she-cat's claws stung. He gritted his teeth in pain. He glared at her, and hissed each word slowly:
"If I don't join you, then you kill me, is that it?" He stared up into the trees. He didn't care that he was no longer a ThunderClan cat. He'd never forgive himself if he joined her. Mossfur, neither... He wondered if his friendship was her was fueled by the fact that he had been raised by all these ThunderClan cats. It was against the warrior code. He was breaking it as he lived.
Enough.
He smashed at her belly with his hind legs, flinging her off him but not too far. He hauled himself up, hissing, "I'd rather die than join you, then join a group of cats that dare to call themselves a Clan! I will redeem myself without your help."
Jackal tumbled over but sprang up on her paws immediately after impact. Hurling herself across the clearing, she tackled the ThunderClan deputy to the ground and cuffed him roughly on the head with a clawed paw. Goldenfur gasped as he was swung off his feet, completely unprepared. The force of her strike sent him sprawling into some thornbushes. She yanked him out by the tail and bared her teeth. He yowled with pain as the thorns bit into his skin, and gritted his teeth when his tail felt as though it were being ripped from his rump.
"There is no redeeming for you now, Bolt," she spat in his face.
Mistfur looked over at Hailstar. Inkstar was gone...it seemed like she just disappeared. He sniffed the air. Goldenfur should be back at camp by now. He should leave too.
The cool night air rustled the tom's fur as he made his way through the familiar forest. Under the dim sunlight, his gray fur shone silver and his yellow eyes were bright.
He heard a thud up ahead and immediately got down in a crouch. Was someone there, from the Clan? It might be a fox, or an apprentice, hunting clumsily.
He went on ahead carefully.
Jackal sunk her teeth into Goldenfur's spine and felt blood well out of the wound. It was nearly over. He trashed wildly as the she-cat's fangs sank into his spine, and then everything stopped. His wounds burned like fire against his brown pelt as he sank to the ground, relieved it was done…
An unfamiliar smell wafted through the trees. She lifted her head and stood still.
Another cat!
He narrowed his eyes as a new scent filled the air... Mistfur? Yes! He could have whooped with joy, if not for the pain he felt.
From about twelve fox-lengths away, the she-cat's sharp hearing picked up pawsteps. She snarled, scratched him on the shoulder, and backed up.
"You...despicable..." she seethed. "I will kill you. You and your precious Clans...you and all your Clanmates. I will kill you like I did Falconstar!"
She walked towards the trees. "Every Clan shall die...and you will no doubt remember me...Jackal, the daughter of Scourge."
In a blur, she was gone.
Goldenfur gasped at the she-cat's threat, and attempted to scramble to his paws and knock the life out of her, but collapsed, panting with the effort. He narrowed his eyes.
"Jackal..." he hissed. He hated her. He hated Jackal. He groaned as pain shot through his back, unbelievable pain.
"Mistfur!" he cried, though his cry was soft and hoarse, yet audible, "Mistfur, help me..." His vision flickered. Everything went black.
He fainted.
Rainstorm made a comforting noise in her throat. She buried her nose in Starpaw's fur. "I'm sorry," she told Blackstripe. "He was growing into a fine warrior."
"We better get his body back..and alert Inkstar.." Twigclaw meowed.
Rainstorm nodded to Twigclaw. "You're right," she meowed. "Will someone help me carry him back to camp?" Rainstorm bent and lifted Sunpaw's body half off the ground by the scruff.
Starpaw sobbed. She wanted to go back in time, so she was the one that died and not her brother. Silverwing left slowly, casting a sad glance at Sunpaw and then at Starpaw. He left silently.
Emeraldeyes burst into the clearing, utter shock on her face. "No..." she whispered.
She broke down crying.
Twigclaw nodded. He bent down, noticing Emeraldeyes. He couldn't talk, but he blinked at her, hoping she understood the message: to wait to hold vigil until they brought Sunpaw back to camp.
"I'll look for Inkstar," Blackstripe offered, and without another word, bounded off. She neglected any comments on how "good" a mentor she was... Sunpaw, at least, knew how to hunt, and would be an amazing hunter in StarClan. She scented for Inkstar's smell, but found she was walking around in circles.
She sighed, picked a random direction, and walked off.
She suddenly stopped, disoriented by voices around her, crying, sobbing, and screeching. They were ghastly voices, haunting ones, and some stood out, crying, 'Beware!' She shook her head, feeling a link with her dreams.
She paused, scenting Mistfur, Goldenfur, and... blood!
No, not again!
She raced towards the scent, her heart pounding, then she stopped. She knew in her heart that neither cat was dead. She gulped in air, and sat down. She needn't hurry. The scent of death was far away, flowing from Sunpaw, not Mistfur or Goldenfur. She decided to ponder about her recent troubles.
The dreams. She recalled them. They must have been dreams from someone, but they didn't feel like StarClan's. They felt... weird. Like... like the dreams of other cats. The dream of Goldenfur and the strange she-cat, plus the coppery eye, seemed close and real.
Maybe it was Goldenfur's mother warning her to look after her kit. Yes, that was it. But suddenly, Blackstripe felt jealous after recalling the she-cat. The cat wasn't even pretty... perhaps she was once, but not anymore. No, she shook her head, How can I be jealous? Sure, Goldenfur was protecting her... but, that's him being Goldenfur. She got to her paws, well rested, and followed the scent once more.
Blackstripe stopped. She was standing right beside the source of the smell that was haunting her. She scented the air, just to make sure, and emerged from the brush.
She stopped dead.
Terror gripped her.
"Goldenfur!" She cried, such panic in her voice to match the sorrow she felt over Sunpaw. She raced to his side, and started prodding the brown tabby's side. She grimaced at the wounds on his cheek - they'd be scars for sure.
"Mistfur!" She realized he was there, too, and mewed, "Help me! We have to take him back to camp!" She began attempting to drag the tom, but didn't get far. He raised his eyelids. "Goldenfur?"
"Jackal!" He breathed with fear, and then fell silent again.
Jackal? Blackstripe thought, puzzled.
Mistfur gasped at Blackstripe's cries and he burst into the clearing. A ripped and torn Goldenfur, lying in a pool of blood, was what greeted him. Blackstripe looked distraught.
Mistfur leapt over to his deputy and nosed him. "He's still alive," he said, breathless. He looked over the tom's wounds. His yellow eyes narrowed dangerously.
"Dear StarClan," he whispered. "Who could do this?"
The warrior had a feeling they should be afraid.