Okay full disclosure this story is REALLY inaccurate with regards to the events of Fire and Ice. It's been at least five years since I read the books, and I wrote this without refreshing my memory. I thought about going back and editing the story to reflect the actual events leading up to Cinderpaw being crippled, but honestly, I don't care that much about making the story accurate. I just wanted to write this AU point of divergence concept. So feel free to mentally Photoshop Tigerclaw and theoretical ShadowClan sightings over top of this fic. And as always, enjoy!
Fireheart pounded across the forest floor, following the trail of his apprentice. "Cinderpaw!" he yowled. "Cinderpaw, wait!"
He spotted her smoky grey pelt through the brush. Her tail swung impatiently from side to side as she stalked the border between ThunderClan and ShadowClan. That border happened to be a Thunderpath.
"Come here, Cinderpaw! It's not safe!" he called again, but Cinderpaw's ears were pricked. She watched a thrush intently as it landed on the road and pecked about for food.
Fireheart's ears swiveled to the right. He heard a low, growling rumble that shook the very ground he stood upon. A monster, coming this way!
Cinderpaw pounced and caught the thrush just before it took wing. Normally, Fireheart would have been proud of his apprentice's excellent form; but the growling grew steadily, deafeningly louder. Too loud.
With a mouth full of feathers, Cinderpaw looked up. Too late. She dropped the bird and sprinted away.
The monster twisted. It made a horrible screeching sound, like a thousand cats's claws scraping on bare rock. It swung to the left and plowed into a solid ash tree. A loud splintering noise. Crunching. The monster teetered on two paws and fell on its side.
Everything was still.
Fireheart smelled smoke and something awful. "Cinderpaw!" he yowled. "Are you okay?"
He spotted her, on the edge of the Thunderpath, eyes wide and fur on end but otherwise uninjured. Cinderpaw looked back and forth along the path before darting to the ThunderClan side.
Fireheart trotted to her and groomed her mussed-up coat. "Oh thank StarClan, you're all right!"
His apprentice's eyes never left the fallen monster. "What... what happened? To the monster?"
They both sat and watched it. A trickle of smoke rose into the air. There were the muffled voices of multiple Twolegs. The white-coated monster's shining eyes had gone dark, and its face was mashed in. The tree it had struck was leaning at an awkward angle.
"Twolegs. They're in there," Cinderpaw continued. "S-should, should we help?"
Fireheart lowered his tail. "We should go tell Bluestar. And warn her about Tigerclaw. He planned this. You would have been killed if the monster hadn't hit the tree."
"But, but," his apprentice stammered, "if they're hurt? They might die! What then?"
He stopped walking and looked back at the monster. It was the same colour as the one his owners had kept. They would get in the monster and wake it up. His owners had been carried away by the monster, but the monster had always brought them back.
What if that monster had had his owners in it? What would have happened to poor little kittypet Rusty?
Fireheart turned around and padded carefully to the fallen monster. "You're right. We should help them, and the monster too, if we can."
The stench was horrible, and all they could see were its paws and underbelly. "We should climb a tree," he suggested. "That way, we can see if there are Twolegs in the monster." Cinderpaw pointed out an oak tree with plenty of low branches. As they climbed, a Twoleg lifted the monster's side open and climbed out. Blood leaked from its head.
"Can, c-can we help it?" asked Cinderpaw. "How do we stop the bleeding? Do cobwebs work on Twolegs?"
Fireheart tapped her on her shoulder with his tail. "Don't worry about it yet. Keep climbing."
They were soon high enough that they could see another Twoleg in the monster. It wasn't moving. The first Twoleg crouched on the grass and put its paws to its head.
Another thunderous noise. Another monster. The Twoleg shot to its feet and frantically yowled and batted its paws in the air. But the monster didn't stop.
"Why wouldn't it stop?" asked Cinderpaw. "Don't monsters help other monsters? Or are they from different monster Clans? How could they tell if they're moving so fast?"
Fireheart replied, "I don't know. All I know is that monsters stop at Twoleg nests. Unless they're dead, like this one."
"How do you know it's dead?"
"It has smoke coming from it. Normally, when cats catch on fire, they die."
Cinderpaw blinked. "Good point. What about the Twoleg? The one still in the monster?"
Fireheart peered through the gaping wound in the monster's flank. "I... I don't know."
"Should we help it? We should. Should we? What do we do?" Her tail whisked back and forth. She wouldn't stand idly by and do nothing. When was the next patrol due? He should alert Bluestar. No, but what if that Twoleg in there was still alive? The monster was smoking, though. Too risky. But leave it to die?
Fireheart closed his eyes and relented. A plan took form in his mind.
"While I get the Twoleg out there to follow me to the Twoleg Place, I want you to try and help the one in the monster." He shared with Cinderpaw what little he knew of herbs and their uses. "Don't stay in there too long. Other Twolegs might come by. And clean off in water when you're done. Don't try grooming yourself, you might get sick. Understand?"
"Understood." The two cats climbed down from the tree and approached the monster. Cinderpaw went to the broken ash tree. Fireheart peeked through the bracken at the Thunderpath. The Twoleg was pacing beside the path, making soft mewling noises.
Taking a deep breath, Fireheart slipped through the brush and approached it.
Before he could second-guess his decision, the Twoleg spotted him and meowed something. It crouched down and made a whistling noise, like a birdcall. Fireheart was reminded of being a kittypet, of his owners calling him in this way when they wanted to pet him. Oh, how good it had felt to be scratched on the head with their long blunt claws...
No, he was a warrior now, and he obeyed the Warrior Code. The 15th law: A warrior rejects the soft life of a kittypet. He had another task.
Cinderpaw disappeared into the belly of the monster. Fireheart waved his tail in the air and meowed, "Come here!" He turned tail and trotted into the woods.
He paused after a couple seconds. The Twoleg's heavy footsteps thudded behind him. He turned around and meowed again. "Come on, this way!"
The Twoleg didn't move. It said something. Was it trying to say "Place?" Perhaps not. Twolegs often said one thing and did the opposite.
"Yes, place," he said. "Come to the Twoleg Place." He backed up. This time, the Twoleg followed him.
Fireheart led the Twoleg through ThunderClan territory, steering clear from the training grounds and anywhere else his Clanmates might be at this time of day. It was a big and clumsy creature, stumbling through the undergrowth with cracks and crashes that scared off all prey ten fox-lengths from the two of them. He kept his pace slow, so that it could keep up. All the while, though, he feared that it might lose its way or be startled by a vole or turn around and attack him - no, it wouldn't do that. Twolegs were not that bad, he knew. Still, he didn't trust them, not any longer.
Fireheart laughed to himself. He was in charge of the Twoleg now. What a turn of events. He kept his tail up and his ears pricked like a queen leading her kits, and they passed through the forest without incident.
They reached the fence that marked the edge of ThunderClan's territory. Fireheart leapt to the top of it and found that he was at Smudge's nest. He wondered if he was outside.
The Twoleg looked at Fireheart, then at the fence. It peered over the top of the fence and reached out a paw to swat at a shiny stick on the other side. Part of the fence peeled away and opened out, like the monster's flank had. The Twoleg went through the gap and approached the nest.
"Rusty!" meowed someone. Both Fireheart and the Twoleg looked at the source of the voice.
"Hi, Smudge," he replied, not bothering to correct him. "It's good to see you again."
Smudge made a clumsy leap to the top of the fence and headbutted Fireheart. "What brings you here? And what's with the stranger?"
"Its monster crashed on the other side of ThunderClan territory. I led it here in case the other Twolegs here could help." He glanced at the Twoleg, who was pawing at the nest and calling out.
The pudgy kittypet purred. "Oh, that was kind of you! I'm sure my owners will be able to help. Here, why don't you stay? It's been so long since I've seen you! I'd love to know what you've been up to! And you ought to eat something; you're all skin and bones!"
Fireheart lowered his tail. The Twoleg had gotten inside. "I can't. I have to get back to my Clan and tell them what happened."
"Oh." Smudge looked at his paws. "Oh, that's too bad. Don't be a stranger, though!" He looked back up, chipper as ever. "Come back soon, Rusty!"
There was an almost pleading set to Smudge's ears. But Fireheart remembered the 15th law of the Warrior Code. He shouldn't. Much as he wanted to, he had a duty to his Clan.
"It's Fireheart. And I will," he lied. He jumped down from the fence and trotted back towards camp.
"I must have misheard you. WHAT did you do?"
As Fireheart explained again, Bluestar buried her muzzle between her folded paws and heaved a sigh. When he finished speaking, the older cat looked up at him.
"That was a mouse-brained decision on your part. You're lucky you didn't run into any other warriors out there with the Twoleg or you'd never hear the end of it. Some of them disbelieve your loyalty enough already." She didn't need to name names for Fireheart to know she was talking about Darkstripe and Longtail. "And Cinderpaw's lucky she wasn't killed, let alone trapped by the Twolegs or interrogated by ShadowClan for crossing the border!"
He lowered his head. "I know it was risky, and I'm sorry."
"You'd better be." Bluestar pondered for a moment. "After I straighten up my nest, you're taking me to the dead monster. Then I'm calling a Clan meeting. I hope to StarClan the Twolegs don't interfere with our business, or with ShadowClan's, for that matter." She closed her eyes again, looking as tired as he had ever seen her.
"W-will you tell the Clan what I did?"
Bluestar looked up. "No."
Fireheart was about to express his gratitude when she interrupted him. "Listen: someone will find out that a Twoleg has been through the woods. Hopefully, its stink will be enough to mask yours. If not, you'll have to answer for your actions, not me. You made your nest, now you have to lie in it. But!" Bluestar dug her claws into the soil to punctuate her remark. "But I will keep this little escapade hushed-up, for your sake as well as mine. Remember, it reflects on my judgement if you bungle up, since I let you into this Clan and trained you. I just hope Cinderpaw can keep her trap shut."
Fireheart nodded, his worry growing by the second. His apprentice wasn't exactly what you would call taciturn.
"Do... do you think I made a good choice?" he asked.
Bluestar thought for a good long while. Finally, she replied, "I can't say for sure if you made the best choice... but I don't think what choice you made was a bad one."
They regarded each other for a moment. Fireheart decided it would be in his better interest to not explain Tigerclaw's botched assassination attempt. Bluestar was annoyed at him enough as it was. Still, he had to ask. "You won't tell Tigerclaw, will you?"
Bluestar gave him a flat look. "He is my deputy and thus my confidante. Don't make me play favourites between you two. But I won't tell him unless he asks."
He nodded. Tigerclaw almost certainly would ask, so his leader's response was little comfort to him.
"Fireheart! I know you're in there!" snapped Yellowfang from outside.
"What?" Fireheart asked stupidly.
"Your apprentice has had her brains leak out her nose! Answer for her!" grumbled the grumpy old medicine cat.
His head was already spinning. "I beg your pardon?" he asked as he padded out of Bluestar's den. Yellowfang sat outside her den with a wet Cinderpaw beside her.
"I want to be a medicine cat now," said his apprentice. "She thinks I'm mouse-brained."
Yellowfang gave Fireheart a look that said, "What did you do to her?"
Jim Turnbull of Leedsville was driving down Windover Road this afternoon with his wife when they swerved to avoid a cat crossing the road and crashed into a tree. His wife suffered a fractured spine and several contusions, but Jim got through with a mild concussion. Not having a cellular phone, he started to head down the road back towards civilisation. Then, he claims, another cat appeared out of the forest.
"I was heading back to town when this bright red cat shows up out of a thicket. It meows at me and goes back into the woods. I think it wanted me to follow it? So I did, and it kept stopping and peeking back at me to see if I was following. And it brings me through the woods to some fellow's backyard. He had a cat too, a black-and-white one, I saw it. So I called 999 and got an ambulance out to my wife."
The emergency services found Jim's wife, Karen, unconscious but alive. They pulled her out of the car and gave her intensive care. But the emergency workers noticed something strange. Ray Hornstadt, who was on the scene, explains.
"There, this is the strange bit. There were cobwebs, in little bunches, and some flat leaves and moss covering the worst of the bleeding. Like, it was staunching the bleeding, deliberately, like the cobwebs and such were placed there. There were also, like, these mashed-up plants on her, too? I don't know what they are, I'm no herbalist. But I think they were all placed there deliberately. I don't know how or by who, I didn't see anyone else out there."
Jim says he owes a great debt of gratitude toward the cat.
"It saved her life, the cat did. Call me barmy if you like, but it did. It brought me to the guy's house - I never got his name - and I got the ambulance out there and the doctors say that saved her life. I've never been that fond of cats, but I wonder, now, if they're smarter than we give them credit for."
Karen Turnbull is expected to make a full recovery. This has been BBC Hampshire with your eyewitness news.
I had a couple ideas about what would happen in this AU past this branching point but I have neither the time nor the energy to make these plot bunnies a reality. So, here, have fun!
- Once Cloudpaw's eating of kittypet food is found out, he and Fireheart are exiled. Does Cinderpaw come with? Possibly, after finishing her training, she seeks them out.
- They go... do they go to Barley and Ravenpaw first?
- Run-ins with Jake, Pinestar, and BloodClan. Messages from StarClan, at all? Do they end up forming SkyClan on their own?
- What happens with Tigerclaw?
- Uneasy alliance w/ Scourge. The enemy of my enemy.
- Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to break free
