Another wonderful chapter for my Heart of Fire spin-off one-shot!!! I dearly hope you are enjoying it because pretty soon it will be over!!! (Finally!) Also I have one-shots out! I will be writing an Exiled Bluestar pov one-shot after this is done!!!
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The cold air chilled Fireheart's bones as blackness wrapped itself around her. She could hear the gentle patter of pawsteps, and her nostrils were filled with the musty smell of damp earth and mingling scents of cats. The flame-colored she-cat's whiskers brushed the confining walls of the stone tunnel as she followed Runningnose and Tigerclaw, down, down, down the long dark underground passage into the heart of Mothermouth.
In this new life of her's, Fireheart had only been to Highstones only once before, as a ThunderClan apprentice. In her previous life, Fireheart had journeyed to the Moonstone and spoke with her warrior ancestors more times than she cared to count.
Fireheart was neither an apprentice or leader, nor was she going to be leader, Tigerclaw would receive his nine lives and become ShadowClan's new leader, bestowed to him from their StarClan warrior ancestors.
Fireheart will simply be a witness. To watch as Tigerclaw got everything he set out to achieve. It was bittersweet, Tigerclaw will become a strong, fair and benevolent leader for his new Clan and Clanmates, all at the expense of his former ThunderClan one.
Tigerclaw had destroyed one Clan in order to build up another.
Fireheart hoped that it was worth all the suffering and regret that was caused in the process.
The dark tunnel leads into an enormous underground cavern where the ceiling of the cave is jagged, but there is a hole where starlight is able to pass into the cave and allows the giant stone rock in the middle of the cave to glow.
Runningnose rushed towards the Moonstone, anxiously flicking his tail for Tigerclaw to join him, it was time, as Fireheart watched Tigerclaw lay beside Runningnose, nose touching the Moonstone and going deathly still as had Runningnose, Fireheart made her own approach.
Fireheart circled to the other side of the Moonstone. And laid in the exact same position as Runningnose and Tigerclaw, nose touching the Moonstone and closed her eyes. From one moment to the next, Fireheart felt as though nothing had changed, however as she blinked open her eyes she found herself no longer in the caverns. Instead, Fireheart was somewhere dark with towering trees that reached endlessly towards the sky. It was dense and dreary. Completely empty, with no sounds of prey or even a rustle of leaves.
It made Fireheart's pulse quicken with dread and made her fur spike in fear. The former ThunderClan warrior moved on instinct, her paws wading the she-cat through a mouse-length high river of stinging thistles. This place was maddening, a darkness that made it hard to see with seemingly no end, thistles that cut into her foot and with no idea how she managed to end up here.
Did I somehow anger StarClan?! Fireheart thought, feeling somewhat betrayed. There was nothing Fireheart could remember doing that could have upset them. Besides reuniting with Tigerclaw perhaps.
Fireheart had no idea how much time she had lost to tirelessly running, she could have been running for a quarter-moon for all the pretty flame-colored she-cat knew, she needed to get out of here, please, please, please, please, PLEASE—
Wait? What was that?!
Fireheart's head snapped to the side as the flame-colored she-cat came to an abrupt, skidding halt. Straining, Fireheart could see something flickering in the distance, a light of some kind, and not wanting to be alone in this darkness any longer, Fireheart shot off in that direction.
The thistles began to thin out as the she-cat got closer to the light, which was a burning flame of fire, surrounded by a thick ring of brambles, seemingly keeping it contained.
Fireheart cautiously approached. Slowly circling around the edge of the brambles as she peered within the flames through narrowed jade green eyes. Fireheart could barely make out something moving within the flames. They appeared to be outlines of shadowy cats, chasing one another in a playful kind of manner, like young kits or apprentices. As Fireheart began staring longer into the flames, those shapes began to change, there was a squirrel, two different types of birds, but only one Fireheart could recognize as a hawk, and before Fireheart could take a look at the rest, a sudden ominous feeling of danger overtook her senses which felt were coming from behind, drawing Fireheart's attention away from the fire.
Fireheart whirled around, her back arching as she slid out her claws from their sheaths as a large, ragged, patched, and scarred tortoiseshell-and-white she-cat slinked out through the surrounding trees, making no sound. This unknown cat, who was as large as Tigerclaw, if not larger, was transparent and Fireheart could easily see the trees behind her. But there was still enough of this she-cat to make an outlined silhouette.
"Who are you?" Fireheart demanded, warily tracking the other she-cat with her eyes as they slowly circled around the flames-colored warrior. "What do you want?"
"My, my, aren't you rude." The she-cat's laugh was dry and humorless, her snaggly teeth flashed each time that she spoke, and her claws were also unsheathed. "Coming into my territory uninvited. Making demands. All because someone else wanted you here."
Fireheart didn't understand this she-cat's cryptic words. It was frustrating and the newly made ShadowClan warrior's fear was slowly giving into anger.
"I didn't ask to be here." Fireheart spat back. "So answer the question or leave."
The lion-maned she-cat laughed once more before humoring the living warrior, "My name is Mapleshade and this is the place I am forced to call home after being betrayed by my former fox-hearted Clanmates." The she-cat, Mapleshade, took a halfhearted swipe at Fireheart's flank, but the sleek, ginger fur warrior nimbly stepped away, out of reach. "I wished only to see what all the fuss was about, you seem to be very special to those mousemeat StarClan ancestors of yours."
Fireheart's fur bristled along her shoulders. So Mapleshade wasn't a StarClan warrior, but the nearly faded she-cat from the sounds of it had been a part of a Clan at some point, but why isn't she in StarClan, and where are they?
"Where am I?" Fireheart murmured, the question was aimed more at herself but Mapleshade deemed it worth answering.
"There truly isn't a definite name. But many of us like to call it the Place of No Stars." The way Mapleshade had said it, so full of sadistic delight, made Fireheart want to run and not look back. Even if she were to get lost, it would be better than being in this cat's presence. However Fireheart stood her ground and didn't back away when Mapleshade came to stand over the shorter she-cat. "It's where those that StarClan has betrayed and wronged are discarded and thrown away."
"StarClan wouldn't--"
"They would and have." Mapleshade hissed right in Fireheart's face, momentarily silencing her. "I was betrayed by my own Clan. I fell in love with a RiverClan tom and had half-Clan kits. Resulting from that, after the truth was revealed, my kits and I were thrown out of my former Clan by its leader, and as punishment from StarClan they took everything else from me. My Clan, my kits, and my self-worth; all taken away."
Fireheart jolted in surprise at how similar they were to each other. They had both been thrown out from their Clan by their leaders along with their kits due to who they loved. "Where did you go? Didn't you go find your mate?"
Mapleshade darkly chuckled as she shook out the thick fur around her neck, like a mane, "I went to find him alright. Though I wish I hadn't," Mapleshade spat, "My kits died crossing the river, there…there was a flood…the wa-water was too high for them, I could-couldn't save them. They died and I was blamed for it. I was rejected from him and his Clan. Left abandoned and alone and filled with nothing…nothing…but revenge."
Fireheart was taken suddenly by surprise when Mapleshade lunged at her, the Place of No Stars resident made a move to try and snap her powerful jaws around Fireheart's throat, but Fireheart managed to twist around at the last second so that Mapleshade's fangs sunk into her right shoulder instead. Fireheart let out a howl of pain, but slashed her claws across the scarred white muzzle until the tortoiseshell-and-white she-cat let go with a snarl.
Fireheart wiggled out from under the transparent body of the banished warrior, hoping a few tail-lengths away to put distance between herself and the surprisingly powerful she-cat, who though transparent and faded, had still retained her abilities as a skilled fully fledged warrior.
"We're so alike, Fireheart." Mapleshade hissed as she charged. "Though so different. We were both rejected from our Clans, our innocent kits being punished for who their fathers were, seeking a new home in another Clan. But you, you were the one who made it work. You never lost your kits, your new Clan accepted you both, and you reunited with a mate who loves you unconditionally. I should have had all that!"
Fireheart gritted her teeth as she was bowled over. Both she-cat's were then lost in a fury of claws and teeth, they rolled on the ground, Fireheart's teeth locked in the battle scared she-cat's shoulder, while Mapleshade battered Fireheart's stomach with her hind paws.
Fireheart felt everything. The pain of being clawed, her fur being ripped out, blood oozing out from her open wounds.
Whatever this was, this was no mere dream. It was a literal nightmare come to life and Fireheart felt every bit of it.
Mapleshade rolled on top of her and pinned her down. Firestar twisted, trying to free her hind paws. She scrambled furiously at Mapleshade's belly but could not shake her off. The warrior bared her fangs, aiming for Firestar's neck. Firestar braced herself for the worst.
Suddenly Mapleshade's body rolled off her. Firestar got to her paws to see Tigerclaw battling the ghostly she-cat in a screeching knot of fur and claws.
Tigerclaw's pelt was getting torn and his shoulder glistened with blood, but before Firestar could move to help him he flung Mapleshade to the ground and landed on top of her, panting.
"Stay away from my mate!" he hissed.
Mapleshade writhed violently, scoring deep gorges in the dead and rotten ground, but she couldn't throw off the massive tabby warrior. "Fox dung!" She spat. She twisted her head, trying to sink her teeth into Tigerclaw's neck.
Fireheart jumped in and lashed out with a forepaw. Her claws pierced Mapleshade's throat and blood gushed out.
Fireheart was completely in shock at what she had just done. The flame furred she-cat didn't mean to give a killing blow. Or did she?
The corrupted, miserable, revenge obsessed she-cat gave one convulsive shudder.
Her jaws parted as she seemed to fight for breath. "I can't die…" she choked out. "It's not complete-my plan…" Firestar saw her eyes glazing, a terrible emptiness in them. Her struggles faded and so did the she-cat's body, nothing but a puddle of blood was left behind.
Spitting contemptuously, Tigerclaw shook the blood off his paws. The dark tabby warrior's face was twisted in disgust but when he turned to look at Fireheart, concern quickly replaced it. "Are you alright, Fireheart?"
Fireheart gingerly straightened up, now feeling the burning ache throughout her body as well as her still bleeding wounds. "I'll be fine." Fireheart reassured him. "But what about you?"
Tigerclaw's left shoulder was badly bleeding from a deep bite wound in his shoulder.
Tigerclaw simply shrugged it off. Padding forward to sniff over Fireheart's wounds and seemingly accepting that they weren't life-threatening. "How did you end up here?" Tigerclaw demanded.
"I don't know." Fireheart admitted. "I just laid down next to the Moonstone. I wondered if I could communicate with StarClan about my life changes. I opened my eyes and somehow I ended up."
Tigerclaw seemed to take a moment to ponder over Fireheart's admission. Before letting out a long-drawn-out sigh. The dark tabby warrior looked as though he had aged over seasons in the course of a single day.
"I think I know why we're both here." Tigerclaw said but didn't explain further. "We should go."
"Go?" Fireheart echoed. "Did you get your nine lives already?"
Tigerclaw's eyes glowed like clear, vibrant amber stones. They now held a sort of mystery to them, something ancient and wise, nothing like how they would flash with scheming malicious intent, there was no hint to the Tigerclaw of the past.
"I did." Tigerclaw rumbled. "I'm now Tigerstar. Leader of ShadowClan. Now we need to get back to our Clan."
"How do we get out of here?" Fireheart murmured, gliding forward to stand at Tigerstar's side. "I couldn't find my way out."
Tigerstar glanced down at her. Something indescribable appeared across his face for only a moment before schooling his features, "I think I know the way." He whispered, he gave her ear an affectionate flick of the tail before leading the way out of the Place of No Stars.
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Fun Facts;
One chapter left!
I never planned on Mapleshade showing up, or Tigerclaw/star…that just kind of wrote itself.
Fight scene was inspired by the one between Darkstripe, Graystripe and Firestar in The Darkest Hour!
Also inspired by Sandstorm and Mapleshade's fight in The Last Hope!
Read: Heart of Fire: Rising Storm Chapter 11 (This goes well with it!)
This chapter turned out longer than I thought it would. Probably longer than my last chapter which happened to be the longest chapter before now! (Don't honestly know which is longer!)