Next chap...danke to Dewflower, as always, and enjoy!
Brambleclaw found himself flinching away as Tawnypelt's battle cry split the air. She flung herself at Hawkfrost, her lip curling to reveal her teeth. Hawkfrost was caught by surprise but reared up, matching her claw to claw and throwing her to the side. She tumbled down the log, skidding to a stop as her sharp claws dug into the soft, wet bark.
"Traitor!" the she-cat spat, regaining her footing and looking straight at the dark tabby with an intensity that made Brambleclaw wince. "Blackstar was right all along; you should have been killed the moment you came to the forest!"
Rage smoldered in the tabby's blue eyes and turned them to cold chips of flint reflecting the moonlight. "And you're loyal?" he demanded. "You? Switching Clans, coming in between your own Clanmates and enemy warriors? Going on dangerous journeys when your Clan needed you at home?"
"If we hadn't made that journey," Brambleclaw growled, "We would all be dead now."
Hawkfrost ignored him, and Tawnypelt's voice rose in a high-pitched screech filled with pain. "It's all your fault! You fault that ShadowClan doesn't trust me, that ThunderClan hated me! All my life I've tried to prove that blood means nothing. That I could be loyal, no matter whether I had ThunderClan or ShadowClan blood, no matter who my father was. But you...you're undoing all of that!"
Her hatred made Brambleclaw freeze in surprise. Tawnypelt had never been like this before. She was often angry and prickly, but that was a calm anger, when she looked down at cats, so much more in control than they were. Now her fur bristled, tail lashing as she hissed. Her eyes flashed with a raw hatred, and her claws swiped at the air. Brambleclaw glanced at Cedarheart, who seemed as stunned as he was. Hawkfrost's cats had backed up, watching the fight with a fascination that made Brambleclaw want to look away.
Tawnypelt leaped up, landing on Hawkfrost's back. Her claws slashed his dark tabby fur until his blood spattered onto the log below their paws. He yowled in pain and fury, twisting to reach her. His claws sank into her shoulders and he pulled her down, pinning her to the log. He hissed at her. "You are lucky to have known our father. To learn from him, discover his dreams. I never had such a chance."
The tortoiseshell she-cat snarled at him. "You're the lucky one. I wish I had never met him myself."
Hawkfrost's paw drew back, his unusually long claws sliding smoothly into the night air. Brambleclaw's gaze was fixated on them, and suddenly he was in a different place altogether: Fourtrees, before the Twoleg monsters. He stood among the ThunderClan and WindClan cats, watching Tigerstar throw himself at Scourge. His father's paw lifted, claws as long and gleaming as his son's were now.
Cedarheart's yowl brought Brambleclaw sharply back to earth. In a flash of gray fur he passed Brambleclaw , launching himself towards Hawkfrost. Brambleclaw instinctively leaped with him, but they were both too slow. Hawkfrost's paw flashed down, and then up again, this time dark with blood. Tawnypelt let out a cry of pain and defiance that rang in Brambleclaw's ears.
Hawkfrost's eyes were narrow as he released her. Tawnypelt was limp on the log, and Brambleclaw fell midleap with Cedarheart. They were both waiting. Waiting for her to get to her paws. Waiting for her to throw herself back at Hawkfrost. Waiting for her to fight back, not showing any pain or fatigue, just as stubborn as always.
But instead she only rolled pathetically to the side. The clearing seemed to hold its breath as her claws scrabbled weakly on the log, but before she could grab a firm hold she fell from the smooth surface to the water below, hitting the lake with a sickening splash. The ripples in the water seemed to pass through Brambleclaw, shock waves that shook every hair on his pelt. Still he stood, waiting patiently for her to break the surface. Tawnypelt would be back up to fight again, and together they might- no, they would- beat Hawkfrost. Tawnypelt will help me undo everything I've been doing wrong ever since I started trusting him. She's strong, and so am I. We can win.
Several long heartbeats passed, but she hadn't come up yet. Cedarheart went limp beside Brambleclaw, his eyes never leaving the water. "No...no."
Brambleclaw looked at him in confusion. "Tawnypelt would be back up soon." She would be ready to fight, like always. She wouldn't leave the battle first; she never did. Even when she had injured her shoulder on the journey to the sun-drown-place, even when she and him had been on separate sides during the border fight with ShadowClan, all those moons ago.
Brambleclaw's gaze rose to meet Hawkfrost's, and the groteque satisfaction in his half-brother's eyes to make him realize. Realize that Tawnypelt was not rising, was never going to rise.
She was dead.
&&&
Leafpool's paws pounded the ground as she charged in between Squirrelflight and Crowfeather. Her sister's green eyes were narrow, and both of the she-cats winced as they heard a splash come from the lake. Not Brambleclaw...it can't be Brambleclaw. Was it her own thought, or Squirrelflight's?
"Who are we fighting?" Crowfeather demanded as they neared the log. "We don't even know who's there!"
Squirrelflight's mouth opened as if she intended to spit back a reply, but couldn't come up with anything. Rainwhisker and Sootfur, who were still leading, came to an abrupt stop. "Squirrelflight," began the lighter gray tom, "maybe we should watch for a moment-"
The ginger she-cat was already flashing past them, Leafpool at her heels. The two sisters crept through the island grasses, just in time to see Brambleclaw sway on his paws from his position on the log. A ShadowClan tom was beside him with a similiar expression on his face, while Hawkfrost, a party of warriors behind him, surveyed them coldly. His tail whipped at the cats, unmistakably on his side.
"Attack." Leafpool had never heard an order given like that before, a hissed whisper as if he knew for certain that it was going to be followed, as if he did not care what he was saying because they should already know what to do. Either way the warriors obeyed, surging forward to Brambleclaw and the gray ShadowClan tom, who didn't look like they were going to put up much of a fight.
Squirrelflight whipped around to face Rainwhisker and the others. Her voice was a yowl of determination and a hatred that Leafpool had never seen in her before. "There's your enemy!" Her tail jabbed at Hawkfrost. "Him and anyone with him! Anyone attacking Brambleclaw!"
Rainwhisker, Sootfur, Ashfur, Spiderleg, and Whitewhisker dove forward after her without question. Crowfeather hesitated for a moment, glancing at Leafpool. "You...?"
"Medicine cats have teeth too." Her eyes flashed at him, and he nodded and leaped towards the fray, with Leafpool just after him. True, she had teeth, but Cinderpelt had not been the best warrior mentor; her leg and her own limited training had prevented that. Leafpool's fur bristled. She would still have to fight- she couldn't abandon her Clanmates and Crowfeather now, not when they were already outnumbered in this fight.
She tried to keep Crowfeather in sight, but was wrenched aside by a skinny ShadowClan tom. Leafpool winced as his claws raked her flank and she dodged out of reach, only to leap forward again, her claws digging into his ear. A yowl split the land around the log, and Leafpool flinched as she realized it was Squirrelflight. She turned her head to see if her sister was all right, and in that moment the ShadowClan tom bit down hard on her shoulder. The medicine cat struggled but his hold only tightened.
I'm not a warrior! How-
The thought was cut off with a blur of gray fur as another cat ripped the ShadowClan tom away from her. For a moment Leafpool thought it was Crowfeather- but was surprised to find another ShadowClan tom. She blinked, confused, until he met her eyes. "I'm a friend."
It was Cedarheart, and Leafpool could only spare him a brief nod of thanks before she leaped off, searching for the orange pelt of her sister. She couldn't see Brambleclaw, or Tawnypelt, or Crowfeather, and her paws sank into mud with each step. Cats fought all around her; the chaos rang in her ears. She wasn't used to it- she didn't want to be used to it. She was a medicine cat, for StarClan's sake!
Another set of claws dug into Leafpool's fur, making her wince. She lashed out instinctively, and the she-cat recoiled with a screech of pain just as she caught sight of Squirrelflight, wrestling with a massive black-and-white RiverClan cat. Leafpool sprang over to help, and together the two sisters sent the cat sprawling away.
"Have you found Brambleclaw?" Leafpool panted.
"Only for a moment," Squirrelflight gasped. Her green eyes were oddly hollow
"He isn't-"
"No." Squirrelflight's tone was blunt. "But Tawnypelt is."
Leafpool's heart thudded so loudly she thought it impossible that her sister couldn't hear it. Tawnypelt. Leafpool had never known the ShadowClan she-cat herself, but Squirrelflight had always talked of how brave and practical she was. And the friendship they had made on their journey to the sun-drowned-place would make it a devastating loss for Squirrelflight- and Crowfeather too.
"Brambleclaw said Hawkfrost did it," spat Squirrelflight.
It registered what this must mean for the dark tabby tom, and Leafpool's amber eyes widened. "Where is he?"
Squirrelflight shrugged. "Fighting. There are more of them than there are of us, Leafpool. And Hawkfrost has them all fighting for him to the death. We could lose."
Leafpool swallowed as she imagined Squirrelflight dying in this battle- or Crowfeather. She still had not found the WindClan warrior, but a new battle cry made every fighting cat pause for a moment.
Brambleclaw and Hawkfrost were upon the log. Both brothers were bleeding from wounds, but both stood strong, staring at each other with an intensity that would have made most other cats turn away. Their flanks heaved and their teeth were bared; Leafpool didn't know which one of them had yowled. When the moonlight took the shine off their eyes, she could not tell them apart.
Squirrelflight tensed beside her, and Leafpool didn't have to look at her to know what she was thinking. She could see it, in Brambleclaw's hatred and Hawkfrost's cold arrogance; in the whisper that seemed to ripple over every cat fighting. It made her own fur prickle and her claws grip the mud beneath her. She wanted to flee, but she couldn't take her eyes off the two toms.
Tawnypelt's death had been the first that day, but Leafpool knew now that it wouldn't be the last.
You can all commence hating me now.
