AN: We get to learn about just how bad Onestar's madness is, and why Windclan's been so shifty lately
Disclaimer: I don't own Warriors! . . I wish
Sunpaw followed Onestar back to camp, her golden eyes darting around nervously. When good things happened, the insane leader usually took out his 'joy' on the clan prisoners. It wasn't always like that though. When Sunpaw was little kit, she remembered food and warmth and sunny days.
Then he changed. It was sudden to Sunpaw, but the other warriors said they saw it coming. Onestar stopped being kind and gentle. He killed cats that disagreed with him, and refused to let the elders bury any of the bodies. Instead, the bodies disappeared each night. Sunpaw didn't want to think what had happened to them.
Sunpaw became prisoner. Onestar made a special den all for her. It was a tiny tunnel with sharp stone poking out everywhere and at the end, a tiny space for her to lie down. Onestar said that it was because of her bad blood, since she was from outside the clan. Every other day she was fed, but Tornear, the new deputy, often forgot.
The clan changed with him, too. Whether it was because they agreed with him or feared him, it didn't matter. Sunpaw was trapped in a clan of violent, mental cats.
Every day they would beat her. A cat would drag her form her hole and into the middle of the Windclan camp and tie her to a stump using a vine of ivy. Onestar told the clan it was so she wouldn't forget her place in the clan. Not every cat joined in though. Only Tornear, Nightcloud, Onestar, and Breezepaw. But Sunpaw noticed Weaselfur changing too. Each time she saw him; there was more of that glint in his eyes. Soon he would join in on her beatings too.
Sometimes Sunpaw saw pity in the eyes of the cats that passed her; Ashfoot, Morningflower, Heatherpaw, and Barkface. Others didn't look at her at all; Webfoot, Owlwhisker, and Whitetail. But they did nothing to help her.
A harsh shove and a jerk to her ivy leash she wore snapped her back into reality. They were back at camp. Onestar leaped onto a tree stump with the end up her leash in his jaws. In a swift motion, the mottled brown tabby tied her to the tree trunk. It was the same tree trunk used for her beatings; Wonderful.
"Today a Windclan patrol successfully chased off a Thunderclan patrol," Onestar yowled. Joyful murmurs rippled through the crowd, and Sunpaw could see several pairs of unsheathed claws, Breezepaw's, Crowfeather's, and Weaselfur's, respectively.
"Other than that, I have great news. Although Breezepaw has not reached 12 moons of age, he has the right qualifications of the kind of warrior I want to see in Windclan." Breezepaw smirked in satisfaction and stepped forward "So from this day on, Breezepaw will be known as Breezeshadow, warrior of Windclan."
Breezeshadow grinned, a satisfied smirk on his face. Turning back to Onestar, the mottled tabby continued "To celebrate this accomplishment, there will be prey for all, and as usual, a Beating." He finished, leaping off of the stump and grinning at me with a glint in his eyes. In a low voice he spoke to me "You're still my apprentice, rogue-filth, and we will go out for training tomorrow, no matter what condition you're in."
Sunpaw nodded, her eyes not even meeting his as she waited for the beating to begin. A rush of agony at her front paw hit her and she looked to see Breezeshadow, grinning like a fool with blood on his teeth and one claw digging into her paw "Take that, dirt!" He cackled with insanity, and it was impossible to believe that she had once loved this tom.
Once Loved. It was true. At one point in life, Sunpaw had been madly in love with Breezeshadow. And Breezeshadow had loved her. They had been happy. And he had promised, promised that they would always be together. But once Onestar changed, it was as if a sickness swept through the camp. The first one to go was Crowfeather, who was already lost in the grief of Starclan knows what. Yes, it had been like the deadliest of blackcough running through the camp, taking even the strongest of warriors with it.
Now Breezeshadow was only a shell of his former self, cruel and sadistic, just like all of the others in the clan. He hated her, and yet Sunpaw couldn't hate him. It was stupid and pathetic, but in a way, she still liked him.
Breezeshadow snarled, seeing no reaction from his prey. Sunpaw had learned long since then that Breezeshadow loved hearing his victims yowl and beg for mercy. But the pain she felt right then was only to her paw, which wasn't terrible considering that she'd had infected wounds and broken limbs at once during one point at her life. Kestrelpaw though, treated her. It was punishable by death, but the medicine cat apprentice helped her anyways. He never said a word to her since or treated her again, though she had never been that bad after.
Breezeshadow, having enough of the unresponsive prisoner, flipped her onto her back and began gouging at her belly with unsheathed hind claws. That did the trick; Sunpaw began screaming and howling in agony. This didn't help her with anything, only to get more cats to join in. Teeth sank into the base of her tail and a claw slashed her forehead, blood dripping into her eyes. She could recognize scent though, enough that she knew who was attacking her; Breezeshadow, Onestar, Weaselfur, and Nightcloud.
Sunpaw kept howling, wailing in pain, praying that maybe, somebody would stop the madness and heal her, like Barkface or Morningflower or Kestrelpaw. But the only thing that filled the air was her own screams and the maniacal laughter of her torturers.
"Shut it!" Sunpaw recognized the voice as Onestar's, and she felt a paw slam into her head. Then everything went dark.
Sunpaw woke up in the middle of night to an indescribable pain. She was still tied to that stump, and there was dried blood all around her. Yet the most confusing thing was the swaths of cobwebs and marigold on her wounds.
"You woke . . . I was afraid you wouldn't." The soft voice of Kestrelpaw from her left floated into her ears and she turned her head to see the mottled brown and white tabby sitting beside her. "They stopped a little after you passed out. Everyone thought you were dead. When I went to sleep, I was sent a dream form Starclan. They said that the cats in Windclan are sick, like a disease, but only it affects you differently. You see, it makes you cruel and insane, and well, you know. You've experienced the bad end of it." He explained quietly.
Sunpaw nodded; what he said made sense, even if it did sound strange and paranormal. Everyone had acted different, their eyes shone with an unnatural glint. One cat couldn't change others into monsters like they had become, but a disease might "S-So is there a cure? And how'd Onestar get it?"
Kestrelpaw shrugged his shoulders, and there in the moonlight like that, he seemed a thousand moons old "I'm not sure. Starclan told me that some sort of darkness, like a dark Starclan sent it. I don't doubt them but . . ." The tom trailed off, her green eyes distant "I don't know. If there is a cure, I don't think it has to do with herbs. But there's something worse, too. Starclan told me that if the four don't fix everything soon, it'll spread across the lake."
Sunpaw shuddered in fear, her golden eyes flashing with fear. She looked at him nervously and shuffled her paws "What can we do?"
"I can't do anything. It's beyond me. But you, you need to go. Run, find another clan, and tell them what's going on. You won't be saving anybody as a prisoner." Lifting one unsheathed paw, he slashed through the ivy collar she wore.
Sunpaw nodded, though she felt shaky and unsure "What if they don't believe me? What if I can't find a cure? What if-"
She was cut off by Kestrelpaw, who nudged her to her paws and began guiding her to the camp entrance "Just go! You'll save us, I know you will. Find the other three!" With that, the medicine cat shoved her out of camp and into the great moorland.
With each paw step, Sunpaw's confidence grew. Maybe it was because she was growing farther and farther from Windclan, or maybe it was in the excitement of the journey. Still, one question tugged at her mind, one she found no answer to.
What did he mean by the other three?