The icy bitter jaws of Leaf-bare had grasped the forest around her, covering every mouse-length in a layer of crisp rock-like frost, from the highest branches of the canopy to deepest darkest burrows of badgers. Trees now hung bare of leaves that once glowed with a healthy green. Now all they'd been reduced to was an another swivelled muddy layer on the forest floor, only existing to be trampled by starving creatures. The tall trunks reminded idle in frozen silence. No chirps of fluttering birds rang. No clicks of hopping insects called. All things of the past. Now the animals of the forest, either cowered in the forgotten cracks or had withered away along with the leaves. All but two.
A lone mother and a single kit. They wondered under the bare claw-branches of the nameless woodland, with no direct destination insight. Fate had not been kind to them. Outcasted from both the Clans and their own family. They're pelt hung loosely against their wiry skeletons.
Once a respected warrior, then the traitorous queen and now murderous rogue, Mapleshade thundered on in her stride, hatred being the only thing allowing her shrivelled heart to pulp the thick red liquid around her husk of a body. Like a useless bird without wings, Larchkit waddled on behind, barely keeping within a fox-length of her. His deep amber eyes constantly flashing in and out of focus. Mid-walking, the kit quickly risked a pause, putting his paws and to his mouth, and lashing a small pink tongue over his paw-pad. That was it. Grumbling to herself, Mapleshade abruptly halted, forcing Larchkit to snap back into focus, having to suddenly halt himself to avoid a painful collision with the pile of bone and fur. A fear scent trickling into her flaring nostrils as the son and mother made direct eye contact.
The massive ragged she-cat stared down the tiny kit with a hardened stony burning glare as he pathetically shrieved. "Larchkit. Stop shaking like a newborn.", she ordered, not holding back on the harsh tone. Recuntantuily, he forced his body and muscle to tense up, straightening himself up. With that out the way, she held out a front paw, "Show me your paw-pad.", she mewed with more intensely.
However, he didn't lift a muscle. Still staring at her with that stupid expression. "Show me your paw-pad.", she repeated. Resultantly, he placed his tiny paw on hers. She looked down at the redraw paw-pad.
The cracks that ran through his flesh were like long thin gorges that ripped through the rocky ground at Highstones. Split fizzled at the edges of her mouth, like a dog foaming with blood-thirst. The little maggot was fussing over nothing. She'd walk until the ground wore her paws down to the bone itself. She'd walk to the ends of the earth if she needed to, to hunt down any threat to her family. And if she was willing to do that, then Larchkit should've been expected to do the same. The scrawny cat flicked away the tiny paw away from her grasp while she snorted in disgust.
The fur that ran along Larchkit's spine rippled with shame, hesitant to start talking, "Mother.", he breathed, "We've been travelling non-stop all day now. I'm hungry and tired. Can we please stop off for the night?", almost sounding like he begging. Mapleshade's long head leaned in, threateningly, like a snake about to strike. "We don't have that kind attitude around here, kit. Only weaklings think like that.", she scolded, "And what are you?".
Sighing, Larchkit hanging his head low, "The greatest warrior in the Clan's history.", he muttered, his eyes dulling over as if it was being filled with murky water. She nodded, "Exactly. Bloomheart doesn't rest and neither do we.". With that out the way, Mapleshade span on her heel, speeding off again. With Larchkit miserably following.
As she forced herself on through the dead woodland, her mind wandered to how things could've changed so quickly, with no warning. Thinking back even further back to when she was a nursery queen back in that traitorous Clan, it almost didn't feel like her. It felt that tortoiseshell she-cat in her memories; who was neatly groomed, had a full belly and laying in a soft nest of feathers and moss, should have been another cat. Like they were nothing but false memories.
A time, where she wasn't being rejected by everything and everyone around her. A time where she could freely glide through the Oak forest of Thunderclan, without being fearful of everything flickering shadow and swinging fern. After being rejected by both Thunderclan and Riverclan, She'd thought things couldn't have gotten any worse. But how wrong she was. Less than a moon age, the once happy family had been torn apart, each member travelling their separate path. And now recent times had been torture.
She would prefer to drown in a river, then having to watch her daughter prance around with that loner. Losing any sense of pride from Clan blood that flowed through her veins.
And then there was Patchkit and Appledusk... She'd haven't spoken to either of them since the argument, not even glimpses from a distance. The only thing that reassured her that they were still out there, was the occasional faded scent-mark or scraps of old meals, long past their prime. It was the only spark of hope in this hopeless, leaf-bare straggled wasteland.
Driving the bitter feeling down, she hollowed out her mind. She marched on. The only thing reminding in the lonely void of her mind was the goal. The goal to kill Bloomheart. And once that was done, find a way to rip the last breath from Oakstar's body. Alongside any Thunderclan cat that posed a threat to them. She'd bring down the entire forest if she had to.
She didn't understand what the grey tabby rouge had been doing this past moon. He'd hadn't attacked any of them. Yet. Instead, he just kept moving. Sometimes Mapleshade thought he was playing with her like a disrespectful kit with a piece of prey. Teasing her with the sight of a distant bony tail disappearing behind a corner. Or long narrow claws marks scraped into the bark of a twisting tree. Or- Suddenly, an unmistakable scent hit the glands at the side of her mouth. A scent she knew well. Luckily, Larchkit soon picked it as well. At least he wasn't terrible at tracking. Or this.
Near a thick sheet of thorns, lay several patches of rotting leaves, tinted with blood. The patches created a trail that wrapped behind the thorns, out of sight. Sticking her muzzle to the ground, she began to follow, Larchkit eagerly letting her take the lead. However, she wouldn't allow such cowardly behaviour, forcing Larchkit at her side with her bush-like tail. Slowly they crept out from under the undergrowth, into a small packed tight clearing. The scent of bloodshed still lingered and the raging sounds of battle still echoed among the nearby pines. A single body was laid out neatly in the centre, as the body of prey on display, but it wasn't the usual kind.
Mapleshade licked her lips as she approached the gruesome scene; A fox cub with a gruesomely mutilated neck. There was no way Bloomheart did this for food, it was to show off. She couldn't help but be reminded of the move he'd taught her as an apprentice. Instead of going for the windpipe like killing bites, it was better to aim for the artery. He always had his own unique way of killing - Making her wonder if she'd unwittingly used the same method on her victims. Larchkit hung back, eyes wide at the viscousness of the scene. If the Fox cub had been a cat, it would probably be around his age. Did Bloomheart do that on purpose?
However, Mapleshade had been too engulfed in her own thoughts as she reminded crouched over the lifeless body, that she had let her guard down. Instead, it had been Larchkit of all cat that sounds out the alarm, "Mum!", he screeched. Snapping back into reality, Mapleshade swung her head back over to the clearing.
And there he sat. His back straight, his tightly pace muscles showing through his thin pelt, tail neatly placed over his paw, chin held high and an eerily calm expression on his face. His right ice blue eye frosty with bitterness. While the after eye reminded clouded in the same storm of blindness. "Greetings Mapleshade. How's Petalkit?", Bloomheart addressed, bowing his head.
"You!", Mapleshade roared out with the loudness of a Lionclan warrior, her lungs threatening to burst. Immediately, exploding into a storm of utter fury and hatred, she flung herself towards the enemy, with the speed of a deer and weight of a boulder. However, as if it'd been planned all along, Bloomheart was already spinning on the spot and flew like a raven into the nearby sea of barren heather. Mapleshade tore after him in a fit of rage. Leaving the pitiful body of the fox cub and clearing behind. The spiked leaves of the forest clawed and whipped at her face as she sped past. Her jaw hung open, as they severed and darted in and out of the rows of towering pines, prepared, just in cease his lashing tail came into range.
Bloomheart was like a fly, narrowly ducking to the side whenever Mapleshade came too close, avoiding being forced down to the ground. The heartbeat continued to pound in her chest and the blood flowed through her veins, faster and faster. Her paws sliding across the floor. He wasn't a Windclan cat, he couldn't keep this up for much longer!
Anger left her being dragged on by her own body on as Bloomheart slowly began to veer off the obvious path, instead, beginning to make a curving arch in his run, switching course to somewhere off to the east. Using that her advantage, she continued to run straight as he began to turn, closing the distance between them. However, her attempt failed with Bloomheart avoiding her snapping jaws by the skin of his teeth. Yet this made her only more determined. Her mind flashing back to every prey she caught, every warrior she chased out of her territory. She'd been in this station a million times before. Every Time succeeding. This would be no different.
The pine trees around them become even taller and even daunting than ever before. A forest reaching up, torching the cloud-covered sky itself. Bloomheart now just a fox-length ahead of her. He risked a glance over his broad shoulder, accidentally allowing their glare to lock. Neither of them flinching as the chase continued.
A loud booming began to form into a swirling whirlpool of sounds, howling in her ears. A rancid toxic smell drifting over her nose and tongue. Instead of the mushy leaves or sandy soil, it becomes a gritty sticky black stone under her paw pads. How far had she run? Mapleshade halted, breathless. The rage gushing out of her system like the exhausted breaths that escaped her aching throat. The haze of her mind, gathering into more fluid thoughts. Dimly, she looked about herself. She stood on the rough surface of a Thunderpath. And not just any Thunderpath. At the edges of the huge black snake, stood two very distinct territories.
Her heartbeat quicken as she recognized the overly familiar territories, the massive spiked pines of Shadowclan and the strong sturdy oaks of Thunderclan. She stood directly at the border between those two mighty landscapes, both crawling with danger on either side. She stood deep within the land claimed by the four Clans. Trapped. What had she done? How could she have been so stupid?
Instinctually, she dashed over the Shadowclan side as she heard the distance hovering sounds of Monsters as they approached. Being careful, not to step onto the strange green-shards that glinted like ice in the pale sun, the reminds of a piece of two-leg thrash that lay shattered at the side of the Thunderpath. As she crouched down on the dipping slope of Shadowclan's border, the scent marks beginning to pierce at her pink nose. She didn't know what was worse, the scent of Shadowclan or a Thunderpath.
Even worse was the fact, she couldn't see Bloomheart anywhere. The foxheart disappearing somewhere into the Thunderclan side of the border. The odour of the Monsters drowning out any hope of tracking his scent as they thundered past in a massive stampede. She let off a sharp hiss, furious to get the perfect opportunity to rip his throat out, gone. Slipping right passed her paws.
Just then, a loud screeching of a kit made her head raise as a dark brown space moved on the Thunderclan bank. His chest breathed heavy, as he gasped, so exhausted and so desperate for air, it looked as if he was trying to eat it. Larchkit searched frantically for the tortoiseshell rouge, he called his mother. Mapleshade watched him for a moment, blinking. The fact he'd managed to keep up at all, was impressive. Even if it was barely. Maybe this wasn't over. A sudden spark of determination blazed into a raw fire. More fierce than the sun itself.
Another Monster came, a small blue one zipped past her with alarming speed, spending a blast of wind slamming into her face. Waiting briefly, the Tunderpath clear of Monsters and she charged over it, calling out to him, "Larchkit!". His ears pricked at the sound his name, spinning round to see Mapleshade running up to meet him. Relief flooded over him, as he leapt into her paws, purring heavily. "I'd thought I lost you!". He gasped, claws flexing, "And Bloomheart-", struggling to get control of himself.
However, Mapleshade nudged him off, bending down until she was able to look directly into the black voids of his pupils, her tone serious, "Now's not the time for faffing about, son. This is what all your training and hardships have been for. Now the time has finally come to use it. The cat we've been hunting for is now in our grasp and we won't let him escape. Remember what he did to your sister.".
He looked hesitantly at the floor quickly, but the doubt quickly withered away, replaced by the same fire of determination that blazed inside Mapleshade. This wasn't a desire for revenge, it was the desire to protect those who held any significance to her anymore. The only thing that got her up every morning, in this never-ending leaf-bare session. The only thing that kept her moving through a hollow stomach. The only reason she had to live anymore.
She stared into the gloom of the Thunderclan territory, nose and ears twitching. She didn't care about the threats of patrols anymore. Bloomheart could hide within the depths of the Dark forest itself if he wanted to and that still wouldn't be enough to stop her from finding him. She'd sniff him out like a bloodhound.
As they crept closer to the Thunderclan scent marks, Mapleshade quickly whispered into Larchkit's ear, "Make sure to always keep your distance. And only go for the back legs or tail. Only try to trip him up if you have a good solid opening. I'll deal with the rest.". He nodded, eager for vengeance. Both of their furs rippling like crashing waves on a water's surface and claws unsheltered, to the full-length, ready to tear his throat out. She could already taste his blood at the tip of her tongue. And feel his flesh ripping under her grasp.
Her mouth began to slip open to begin the hunt for her new prey but it wasn't necessary. There, perched on a branch like a hawk, lay Bloomheart, waiting for them, peering down at them like scuttering ants. The same way Oakstar would watch down at his warriors, with that snobby look, from his 'glorious' high rock.
Usually, Mapleshade would question why he was being so mousebrained. But now she didn't care, all she needed him to be was dead. Just as Mapleshade; gripped the edges of the trunk with her thorn-like claw, preparing to scramble up it like a squirrel, Bloomheart's flicked his head over his broad shoulder, took a deep breath and let his mouth hang wide open like a cave entrance. The sound that came out was deafening like a terrified screeching bat. The intensity of it made her freeze up from the shock alone. Even with her ears flat against her head, the massive whaling still seemed to manage to burrow its way in. It echoed through her skull, her head spinning and ringing. Larchkit didn't seem to be having a much better time with his young ears.
It echoed throughout the forest further than any birdsong. Mapleshade's heart sunk to her paws like a stone. Even a deaf cat could have probably heard that from the force of it alone as it split the air itself. So a patrol would have definitely heard it- so they would be coming right here!
"Foxbung!", Mapleshade cursed, aloud, unsheathing her claws from the bark and hurrying towards a confused Larchkit. Moving past him, she flicked her long tail for him to follow. But Larchkit stayed like the stubborn roots of a dandelion, "Why are we running away? You promised this would be the day!", he protested. Turning around mid-run, Mapleshade hurriedly skipped over to him like a panicked deer, "We would be mouse brains not to retreat! Do you want to fight an entire patrol?", she questioned. A heartbeat passed as Larchkit reminded silent.
"Oh, this doesn't matter!", Mapleshade blurted, forcefully grabbing Larchkit by the neck fur and yanking him away from Thunderclan border. Larchkit's yowls of pain filling the air.
Just before she could drag the mottled kit away, Bloomheart launched himself from the branch, landing neatly ahead of them, blocking them in, standing tall, "You're not going anywhere.", he insisted. Dumping the squirming worm onto the gravelly floor, she faced the long-legged cat, staring him down. Teeth chattering with excitement. Genuine nervousness flashed in his pale eyes for a split second as he studied her moves carefully. Clearly remembering their previous encounters. Mapleshade tested her claws by flexing them against the rock under her paws, now curious of what it would like fighting a half-blind cat. The blindness that she caused no less.
The two cats reminded fixed on each other, standing their ground, reading each other and waiting for the fight to begin. Mapleshade's fur sparked to twice its size. But just then, out of the corner of her eye, a large tabby tom, dashed out of the bushes, landing heavily next to them.
"Nobody move!", the deputy of Thunderclan, Beetail demanded in his usual deep commanding voice. Other warriors quickly joined their deputy's side, emerging from the thick undergrowth, streaming out one by one; Dawnfeather, Nettlepaw, Deerdapple and to the dismay of Mapleshade, Frecklewish. As soon as Frecklewish and Beetail realized it was Mapleshade that stood before them, their face twisted up with hatred. "Mapleshade!", Frecklewish cried, her voice cracking with emotion. However, when Beetail's gaze drifted over to Bloomheart, his eyes soften. But that was nothing compared to the reaction of Bloomheart's own mate and kit; Dawnfeather and Nettlepaw, both of the stunned, completely speechless. Though, Frecklewish didn't seem to care much, still staring at Mapleshade and Larchkit.
"Father! You're alive!", Nettlepaw finally managed to gasp, rushing over. Stemming took a step forward, purring and smiling, as the lost kin reunited, bumping heads. Bitterness gripped the edges of her heart, feeling unexpected jealousy. Cats like Bloomheart didn't deserve a family. Yet, all of the patrols had seemed to have forgotten Mapleshade and Larchkit for a heartbeat, as if they were nothing but thin shadows. All the attention now on Bloomheart. Slowly, Nettlepaw took a step back to allow his parents to finally meet.
The two mates stared at each other lovingly before leaping into each other in a compassionate embrace. They buried their heads into a sea of pelts and purrs. Like a flower blossoming into a mass of brights colours in New-leaf. Around them, Dawndapple and Beetail shifted around uncomfortably. It reminded Mapleshade that Bloomheart was meant to be the replacement Medicine cat. He wasn't even meant to be mates with Dawncloud anymore. How ironic, Bloomheart was against her being in a Forbidden relationship, yet he's beginning to be in one himself.
Bloomheart drew back from Dawncloud, a shift in his glowing gaze, from loving to bloodlust, "Because I need proof to belong as a warrior, not a Medicine cat. We can still have our future kits, Dawncloud.", he muttered.
Beetail shook his head, "This isn't necessary, Bloomheart. If you come back to Thunderclan, Oakstar can sort out everything.".
Through Bloomheart showed signs of doubt, leaving his mate's side and going up nose to nose with his deputy, "That's where you're wrong. Even if I'm not worthy to be his successor, I won't neglect the dangers Ravenwing predicted. So I've brought those evils, rogues, to be dealt with now.". Suddenly, he swung round to Mapleshade and Larchkit, furiously lashing his tail. Frecklewish crept to his side, eager to join in with what was about to happen next. All the attempt of being brave just fell apart in that heartbeat for Larchkit as he allowed terror to take over. Retreating into the false safety of Mapleshade's side. The patrol was now circling the mother and kits like a group of buzzards swarming around a rotting corpse.
All possible escape routes blocked off. They'd have to fight their way out of the impossible odds of two on six. Surprisingly, Nettlepaw and Deerdapple's faces were tinted with sympathy. Through it was directed at the pitiful lump of kit fur trembling under her paws.
Bloomheart slyly paced round his prisoners, like trapped rodents, for the first time properly smiling, a proud smirk twisting over his lips. He weaved in between his Clanmates as they held their ground, waiting for a signal to attack. The arrogance and overconfidence corrupting the usually humble tom, "I present you, Mapleshade and Larchkit!", he boasted, "Now justice can finally be served.". Bloomheart spotted the hint of reluctance in the uneasy Nettlepaw, so turned to him, "If you don't want to fight, son, fetch Oakstar. He needs to see this for himself.".
Nettlepaw's mentor, Dawndapple's mouth slipped open to protest but Beetail was already agreeing to Bloomheart's orders like a kit, "Bloomheart right.", he insisted, "Go on, Nettlepaw, quickly!". Still reluctant, he left his worried mother's side and bounded off, the dim shade flooding over his pelt, turning it a pale brown as he returned to the shelter of the forest. With Nettlepaw out the way; claws edged out between toes, the fur becomes ragged and spiked, lips were curled upwards, muscles straining with tension, eyes narrowed to slits, and ears were flat.
For the first time in moons, Mapleshade felt truly helpless. Now she was on nothing but a death wish, with the slightest chance of making it out alive, quickly slipping from her paws with every passing moment.
Now there was one thing left to do, all eyes falling onto Beetail. And he gave the order, with a single nod.