Chapter 7: The ShadowClan Exile

Firepaw pounced on the frightened squirrel that had made the mistake of revealing itself and carried it over to the pile he'd made.

Two full moons had passed since Redtail's death and following ceremony and the clan had finally dragged themselves from their grief enough to keep going. He hadn't been brought to the last two Gatherings but he was told that the tension between ThunderClan and RiverClan had been stifling. Sandpaw had apparently gotten into a fight with Rushpaw of RiverClan resulting in both apprentices being banned from the next one. Redtail's absence still stung- he hadn't been very firm or authoritative but he was kind, gentle and encouraging. Sandpaw flipped between training herself into the ground and staring blankly at the ground as if she was already two paws into Ashara's maw.

Ravenpaw wasn't much better- his already skittish friend bolted at the first sound of something behind him and was much quieter than before. Graypaw, Dustpaw and Firepaw tried their best to support them but Dustpaw wasn't holding himself together well either and Graypaw always seemed at a loss of what to say. Still, the clan was trying to recover from the loss. They really were.

Bluestar had taken an ember from Sandpaw's flame and in the wake of Redtail's death, had upped the ante of training. She'd been hard to keep up with before but now Firepaw was wondering if she thought him made of pure energy. Every other morning was dawn patrol then sparring and the other mornings were early hunting patrols and tracking lessons. She trained him into the mud- literally in some cases like today where she'd literally thrown him into the mud when he tried to launch an attack from behind her. She'd dodged, grabbed his scruff and flung him into the nearest mud puddle, much to his disgust. Probably satisfied that she definitely bruised his pride, she announced that it was time for his first solo hunting mission.

After washing most of the mud off in a stream and then licking himself as dry as he could, Firepaw has started on his journey.

"Be careful," Bluestar had warned. "Try to stay away from the RiverClan border- and if you smell a dog, come right back. We don't want to risk you stumbling across Havoc's Pack."

Taking her words to heart, Firepaw had stayed mostly in the center of ThunderClan territory. Deep enough in that any non-ThunderClan scent was here deliberately rather than inspecting something. Going into his fourth moon as a ThunderClan apprentice, he felt a bit more at home with these wild cats. His heart still panged everytime he woke up, his pelt crawling and Ahasra didn't come bounding after him pressing him to go for a walk but these cats had been nothing but welcoming to him.

Well. Most of them were. Longtail still hadn't apologized for the way he'd greeted him and went out of his way to avoid him- fine by Firepaw, he didn't want anything to do with the bossy, arrogant tom if he didn't apologize and he could jump for joy that Darkstripe seemed to be of the same mind of avoiding him. If the tom got sprayed by a skunk, Firepaw would point and laugh himself silly. The only cat that really bothered him was Tigerclaw. Firepaw had tried to show his gratitude to the brave tom for saving one of his best friends and had been brushed off every time. Graypaw had tried to reassure him that Tigerclaw was just a very stoic and busy tom but sometimes Firepaw would see him scoff right after he'd tried to offer him prey or to change his bedding. He also hung out with Longtail and Darkstripe which didn't reassure him in any way.

Firepaw shook his head. No matter. Most of the clan liked him and Bluestar liked him so no one else could do anything about him being there. Besides, Tigerclaw hadn't said anything directly anti-kingdom cat so maybe if Firepaw could show his skills, Tigerclaw may lighten up. Hence his amendment of Bluestar's goal of, "three prey of any kind" to "as many as I can carry in two trips." So far his stache consisted of two mice, a sparrow and now, a squirrel. Hunting was so much easier than it had been before- now the real challenge was remembering to thank Slysoul for his every catch.

Bluestar hadn't told him to do so to begin with, letting him learn of the Souls from the lectures before paw. Now that he had a general understanding of them however, he wasn't excused from the rituals. She didn't seem to mind him talking of and still only believing in his gods as long as he respected the way the Souls are.

That seemed reasonable to him so he respected it.

"Thank you Slysoul for the skills you granted us to catch this prey and for the prey to give its life for the clan," he recited.

Bluestar had said he could say it in his head but he found that he remembered to do it more when he said it aloud. With the addition of the squirrel, Firepaw decided he should only need one more catch to show his work ethic. He was tempted to keep hunting but prey goes bad and more than that, overhunting was a bad idea. Back in the kingdom, farmers could be chastised for overharvesting their livestock and Bluestar had emphasized something similar here. If they hunted too much, there wouldn't be enough prey to mate in the spring and replenish the forest. So Firepaw raised his head, sniffing the air seeking for another prey animal. Anything would do really.

It didn't take him long to catch the trail of another mouse. He kept all of Bluestar's lessons in mind. Keep his tail low but off the ground, light gentle steps, slow movements until he can see the prey- don't get too eager, she'd warned him. Your impatience will lead you to make mistakes. He pushed down his impatience and continued to pad very slowly. The mouse was finally in view- a sleek furred critter nibbling on fallen tree seeds, ears twitching and nose sniffing. He brought his hindlegs beneath himself in a crouch, preparing his crouch.

Just as he was preparing to leap, the creature sat up in alarm looking around then it began to run.

What?!

Firepaw panicked and leapt for it. He almost caught it but with what little luck the thing had, it slipped right through his claws and disappeared into the brush. He snarled with rage and slapped the ground in frustration. He glared horns into the brush searching for what had cost him his catch. It didn't take long for him to catch the sound of something moving swiftly, snapping twigs and crushing leaves as it went. Frustration bubbled within him and as soon as it was close, he pounced. He pinned the startled beast to the ground with an angry snarl ready to claw it when he finally recognized the lump of black fur beneath him.

"Ravenpaw?" he said with surprise.

"Ambush!" his friend panicked. Ravenpaw threw him off and swiped at his eyes. Firepaw yelped, dodging the swing.

"Ravenpaw! Ravenpaw it's me! Calm down!"

The lanky tom paused, panting his eyes blown wide as he processed his voice. Slowly his fur flattened, "Firepaw? Why'd you attack me?"

"You were making so much noise I thought you were a boar."

"And you still attacked?!"

"You scared off my catch."

"Your ears are full of water."

Firepaw laughed at the accusation, trotting over to nudge his friend. This was the brightest he'd seen Ravenpaw smile in sunrises. Ravenpaw nudged him back with a snicker. They shoved each other back and forth before Ravenpaw knocked Firepaw over entirely, both of them flopping to the ground. Firepaw tackled his friend initiating a playful wrestling match. With a laugh, Ravenpaw slipped away from him, sending one last gentle swipe at his muzzle.

"What are you doing out here anyway?"

"Solo hunting mission- what about you?"

"Heading to the WindClan border," Ravenpaw explained. "We've been seeing less and less of them- their border markers are starting to fade too."

Firepaw hummed in acknowledgement. He'd noticed that too- on all of their border patrols, at least the dusk patrol would run into a WindClan patrol but lately it was hard for them to even locate the WindClan border it was becoming so faint. They hadn't seen fur nor whisker of WindClan since the last Gathering.

"Larkwing and I are going to see if we can find a patrol," Ravenpaw explained. "If not, we're going straight to their camp to ask what's wrong. Border marking is really important so there must be something serious if they've stopped."

"You think it might be Havoc's work?"

"It's possible. Normally we'd send a bigger patrol but there aren't enough of us to go into WindClan territory if we end up needing to defend the camp."

"ThunderClan needs more numbers," Firepaw muttered.

It was one of his first realizations after he'd returned from his first Gathering. With few mentors and even fewer apprentices for them, ThunderClan was fairly undersized compared to the rest of the clans. Even if ThunderClan had wanted to kick him out, they couldn't afford to turn away any extra paws.

"Hey," Ravenpaw said, snapping him from his thoughts. "I can't stay for too long but I can try to help you make up for your lost catch."

Then he leapt over Firepaw and darted away. Firepaw laughed and took off after him. If you'd told his past self that one day he'd do a forest sprint on purpose for fun, as soon as he'd stopped wheezing he'd say you had smoke in your brain. But here he was racing Ravenpaw through the forest leaping over logs and weaving through branches snickering and heckling each other. He crunched the leaves and branches, tripping and knocking leaves and branches down. He knew he'd be hard pressed to find anything but he was having fun. Just when he was finally pulling ahead of Ravenpaw, his friend pounced on him and they rolled down a bank into a clearing of plants snickering.

When they finally settled, Firepaw took the time to look around as the scent of pine needles and mud filled his nose. He glanced around at the well trodden path and quickly stood up.

"This is the deer trail," he remarked. "We're on the ShadowClan border."

"Yikes," said Ravenpaw, quickly getting to his paws. He and Firepaw carefully moved back until they were fully on their side of the trail.

"I don't smell any boar so I think we're safe," Firepaw said.

"ShadowClan stinks so much I bet we wouldn't be able to smell a boar if it was only a tail away," Ravenpaw snorted. "Well, it's getting late so I'll have to get to Larkwing before he sends out a search patrol- sorry about the catch."

"It's alright!" Firepaw purred. "Be safe Ravenpaw!"

He waved his tail as his friend began following the border up towards Fourtrees. Firepaw shook out his coat and headed back into the heart of ThunderClan territory- he still had at least one catch to make.

Firepaw flopped to his side. He'd ended up needing to circle all the way around before he found something but it was worth it as he'd finally caught a rabbit. The ash bitten thing had weaved, ducked and dived, leading him on a wild duck hunt (well, rabbit hunt) through the forest before it finally trapped itself between the roots of a tree. Firepaw assumed it had been looking for a burrow but unfortunately for it, that particular tree had solid dirt beneath it. He tiredly carried it all the way back to his stash and dumped it to rest.

He started grooming his ruffled pelt in an attempt to convince himself to keep going. Then he yelped in shock when he was slammed to the ground and had teeth sink into his shoulder.

"Souls I can't believe I'm doing this but it's better than starving."

Firepaw panicked, no cat ever ate another cat. Even at the peak of the bad clan rumors, it was assumed they mangled bodies and scattered the pieces to the wind never that they ate them. He surged up when she tried to sink her teeth into his throat sending her tumbling off of him then lashed out with a swipe that scored down her cheek and scrambled back, fur bristled.

He looked at the tawny molly and hissed even as he took in her matted coat smeared with mud. Now that he was focused, he could smell the faint and masked scent of pine needles.

ShadowClan.

The molly looked alarmed and then launched herself at him. Firepaw quickly dodged her and let her slam into a tree. She shook her head and growled, her claws becoming encased in a blinding white light.

What? Is that makai?

He scrambled out of the way as she tried to pouch again, swiping at him. Here claws left deep marks scored into the trees and she whirled around. Firepaw coughed at the acrid smell of sickness trying to contain his horror at the deep marks in the solid wood as if she'd merely dragged her claws through soft mud. He could not afford to be hit by that. His blood was pounding as much as it had when he'd faced off against Longtail- she was getting tired already, moving more sluggishly than her initial attack. Another charge and Firepaw dodged but this time he didn't move out of the way in time.

She sank her teeth into his tail and he yowled in pain, slashing at her face. She released him so he lunged for her left hind leg, clamping down as hard as he could. She screamed and smacked his ears but he only bit down harder. When he felt her blows weaken, he gave her leg a sharp yank then released it quickly scrambling back.

He didn't need to worry. The molly tried to place her leg down and merely collapsed panting tiredly while a whine of pain.

"You gonna finish me off or what kitty?" the molly asked panting. "Or is ThunderClan so weak they've taken to recruiting farm bellies to fill their ranks."

"I'm an apprentice of ThunderClan," Firepaw said flatly. "Not a coward who needs to kill a cat already three paws into Ashara's Realm."

"Oh but you'd be doing me a favor," she wheezed. "Kill me. StarClan is better than this… this Soul forsaken plane."

Firepaw flicked his ear taking a long look at the molly. Her matted coat, the glimpse of broken teeth, yellow from illness. She reeked of illness and even though her coat was like trying to claw wool, he could still pick out her ribs. He sighed- he was never meant to catch and eat a rabbit was he? He walked over to his pile as the molly's eyes snapped open and watched his warily, likely wondering if he'd take her up on her offer.

Instead, he grabbed the rabbit and dropped it in front of her. She looked between him and the rabbit a few times before he sighed.

"Look if you don't want it," he began.

"No no," the molly said hastily. "I want it."

Firepaw flicked his ear, motioning in a 'then eat' way.

She needed no further encouragement. Quickly she tore the rabbit apart and began devouring it like it'd come back to live and run away. She chewed it with her mouth half open, dropping pieces that she quickly licked back up. He grimaced at the bad manners but reminded himself that a starving cat doesn't need to be lectured on how to eat. Once she'd finished her rabbit, she started grooming her matted mess of a coat. Firepaw suppressed the urge to snort. It would take more than one wash to clean that disaster.

"So what are you doing so deep in ThunderClan territory ShadowClanner?" he asked.

"Wouldn't you like to know," she spat at him.

"I would, that's why I asked," he said. "Look it's in your best interest to answer- ThunderClan isn't exactly fond of trespassers. And you won't be going anywhere with that leg."

"...my name is Brightflower," she said slowly. "And I'm no ShadowClan cat. Not anymore."

"Exile or a runaway?" he asked.

"I left, there is nothing left for me there."

Firepaw hummed, flicking his ear back catching the sound of snapping branches and swift paws approaching.

"I hope you're done," he remarked getting Brightflower's attention. "Because your time is up."

As he finished saying this, a patrol made of Bluestar, Darkstripe, Lionheart, Dustpaw and Graypaw leapt through the bushes, fur bristled prepared for battle.

"What's happened here?" Bluestar demanded.

"Ex-ShadowClan cat it seems," Firepaw reported. "She ambushed me- was gonna eat me."

"Eat you?" Bluestar asked disgusted.

"She tried," Firepaw agreed. "Once her leg was too injured for her to leave, I gave her the rabbit I was going to bring back."

"The clan is meant to be fed first," spat Darkstripe.

"I highly doubt anyone in the clan is that hungry," Firepaw scoffed.

"I say we kill the ShadowClan cat and then punish Firepaw," Darkstripe said to Bluestar.

Firepaw walked toward his mentor and gave her a loud, audible sniff. He waved his tail at her, nodding when she gave him a confused look and turned back to Darkstripe.

"Bluestar seems alive so who died and made you leader?"

"Firepaw!" snapped Bluestar as Graypaw and Dustpaw visibly tried to suppress their snickers. Even Lionheart seemed to be trying to swallow his laughter down. Brightflower released a nervous but audible chuckle of her own.

"You've got spirit farm belly," she muttered with a sigh.

"I think I recognize this molly," Bluestar mused. "Brightflower isn't it? I heard you'd recently had kits- you're a long way from the nursery."

A flash of sadness, grief and regret cross her face almost too fast for Firepaw to catch it.

"Not anymore," she mumbled.

Bluestar's stern look softened.

"Come," Bluestar murmured. "Let's take her back to camp. Sweetsoul will curse us should we leave her out here to starve. Dustpaw, Graypaw, help Firepaw with his haul."

Firepaw showed his friends the stash that had been slightly scattered in the previous scrap. Lionheart and Darkstripe helped Brightflower to her paws and began helping her walk back to the camp. Firepaw trailed after with his haul, pleased with the day's events.