FrozenClan Challenge- What If?
Hollyleaf whipped around. The Dark Forest cat she had just fought she had just sent howling into the bushes.
As long as I can fight, the Dark Forest will not win! She thought, determined.
Without warning, a weight crashed into her.
She curled her lip at the stench, and instinctively flinched. She turned to find her half-brother, his tail lashing, fur spiked and splattered with blood.
Oh, joy. She thought with malicious sarcasm. It's the other brother who should have never been born. It's too obvious that Crowfeather never loved Nightcloud- he never even liked her.
"How could you betray you own family?" She hissed.
"Easy." He replied in a growl, hate and malice gleaming in his eyes. "As far as I'm concerned, I have none. No overprotective mother, no father who ignores me...No half-siblings who should never have been born..."
Before Hollyleaf had a chance to come back with a stinging reply, he bowled her over, his claws gripping her shoulders as he tried to pummel her stomach. Hollyleaf easily swiped his back paws off and in turn pummeled his stomach.
Suddenly she heard a familiar cry.
Ivypool!
She turned her head for a split second to see Ivypool being mauled by Thistleclaw and Snowtuft. They had ganged up on the silvery tabby, enraged by her betrayal of the Dark Forest.
Another familiar cry, this time from Tigerheart. Hawkfrost had slashed his throat out, and now one of the cats Hollyleaf had once thought to be her kin was dead. Despite the recent hostility and awkwardness, Hollyleaf was regretful she hadn't been able to make amends.
Until she remembered she would have been able to if Hawkfrost hadn't killed him.
No! she thought, enraged. We have to win!
Breezepelt watched her horrified gaze and smirked. "We'll have every last one of you pathetic Clan cats dead in no time."
Never! With a burst of fury and adrenaline, Hollyleaf lunged for her half-brother.
If I can get rid of him, there might be time enough to save Ivypool.
Prepared for her attack, Breezepelt simply scooted out of the way, and reached out to trip her as she flew by.
Hollyleaf landed heavily on the ground, the wind knocked out of her. Gasping, her vision went fuzzy. There was suddenly a pressure on her throat, and it was the best Hollyleaf could do not to choke.
She saw Hawkfrost standing over her, his mouth dripping with Tigerheart's blood.
Breezepelt smirked down at her, ready for the killing blow.
I will not let you win!
A sudden fire of hate coursed through her blood.
Fight like rouges. Firestar's words rang in her mind. At first, Hollyleaf had thought he hadn't been serious. There couldn't really be a cat who would really fight so ruthlessly, could there? But she knew most cats didn't follow the warrior code like she did...
She swiped at Breezepelt's neck, her claws unsheathed to their full extent.
Despite him being full WindClan and Hollyleaf only half WindClan, Hollyleaf's blow was faster than his attempt to doge it.
She felt a savage satisfaction as her claws ripped through his soft, exposed flesh. His blood splattered her own neck fur, and his eyes were shocked, though they slowly dulled.
It took him a while to die, as his blood spilled out onto the dusty ground, where it was gulped up by parched sand- which was slowly turning to a slimy forest floor. It sounded like what Lionblaze had described the Dark Forest as- no stars, no moon- just endless forest, with the occasional river of slime.
Disgusted and terrified, she ripped her eyes away from Breezepelt's body and the blood pooling around it. Her eyes landed on Hawkfrost.
Undisguised rage shown plainly on her face, setting her pretty green eyes into a raging, blazing, hot green fire.
She spat at Hawkfrost. "Call yourself a cat? You miserable, fox-hearted, sick, twisted-"
Hawkfrost cut her off with a bored yawn. He eyed her lazily. "What else is new?"
He leaped at her with no warning and bowled her over, pummeling at her stomach. Suddenly his bulky weight came off of her, and for a split second Hollyleaf thought someone had come to help her. Using the split second to her advantage, she threw herself up with a roar of fury, her black pelt spiking to make her look as big as Hawkfrost himself.
He didn't flinch, and his pelt stayed smooth.
"You put up quite a fight, Hollyleaf." He mewed smoothly. "It's too bad we aren't really kin. You would've been perfect."
Hollyleaf was taken aback. He...he can't be serious... She shook herself. He's trying to trick me. There's no way he actually thinks that. Hollyleaf, he's just trying to trick you. She hardened. For the first time since she had gotten up, Hollyleaf looked around. She blinked.
No.
No...
No!
Snowtuft and Thistleclaw were seated calmly by a silver body, it's pelt lacerated with red, welting wounds, staring angrily up into the sky. The two toms were licking the blood of their claws, but once they had finished they didn't bother to groom their pelts.
Thistleclaw caught her staring. "It helps claws stay sharper." he growled. There was a wild light in his eyes, one Hollyleaf had seen in all the Dark Forest cats' eyes.
Bloodlust.
The word rang eerily through her mind, and she staggered.
Hollyleaf's eyes ranged the WindClan camp. Only a few cats were in the clearing, and none of them were warriors. Hollyleaf wasn't even sure they were cats at this point.
I have to be dreaming. I'm going to wake up soon, and Ivypool will be alright, and Tigerheart will still be alive...
But the wounds on her own pelt felt too real. The horror, the pain, the terror...
Please, StarClan, let this be a dream...
Hawkfrost stepped forward, a friendly gleam in his eyes. But what was it concealing?
Malice?
Hate?
Plotting?
Hollyleaf could not find a hint of a lie in his ice blue eyes.
"Will you join us, Hollyleaf?"
It was Hawkfrost.
"We know about the cats who betrayed you. How Leafpool and Squirrelflight lied to you, how Crowfeather disowned you. Even how Lionblaze had a... relationship... with a WindClan apprentice." He paused, his eyes pleading.
Hollyleaf felt rage simmering inside her.
"All those cats broke the warrior code. We could help restore that, make all your pain go away."
The rage went from a simmer to a flame, to a terrible, raging fire.
"Uphold the warrior code, you mean?" She laughed maniacally. "Uphold it? You?"
Still laughing, she had to take a deep breath before she could continue.
"You, the cat that tried to kill a leader?"
"You, the cat that tried to kill your own brother?"
"You, the cat that has killed countless innocent cats- kits and elders included?"
Slowly, she mewed, "You, the son who wanted to be like your father- a murder?"
She had a wild gleam in her eyes now, and said excitedly, "You know what? I think I- I will..."
Hawkfrost looked shocked, but pleased. "Very well, then-"
"Wait!" Hollyleaf snapped. "I wasn't finished."
"I think, I will not."
The next moments were claustrophobic, as all the Dark Forest cats crowded in around her, eager to deliver the killing blow.
She was badly outnumbered- countless enemies against her. Outnumbered ten thousand to one.
She had one more look at all the bodies around her- WindClan, ShadowClan, RiverClan, ThunderClan... and noticed one Clan was missing.
StarClan, she prayed. Please forgive me.
The fifth Clan arrived too late. There were more than just them though- there was an orange-and-white tom, his head bowed in sorrow.
"No! I promised I'd see her again!" He wailed.
Her spirit woke to his voice, and stood up dizzily.
They padded to the stars together.
HOLLYXFALLEN 4EVAR! :D So this was pretty much just if the patrol at WindClan during the Great Battle had lost.
