Four chapters counting the prologue, and only two reviews? Please. Please. I'll never improve my horrible writing unless get critique. But I thank Silverwillow, who bothered to click the little button and tap some little buttons with symbols on them. (And in answer: Yay! Don't worry, many more cats are going to die. Who is your overall favourite, btw?)
So, um. I'm pretty disappointed with my lack of reviews. Even though I've had something like 174 hits and 66 visitors, only two reviews. If you read the story, please review. Even if it's just 'hated it' or something. Of course, a full critique would be amazing, but I'm not going to get that.
Onwards!
Cinderpaw buried her nose in the wiry bristles of her brother's pelt, desperately breathing in his husky scent. Leafpool started forward to tear her away, then paused, painfully concious of her uselessness.
Sorreltail stared down at her son's feverish face, watching his eyelids flutter helplessly. She bowed her graceful head low, then raised it to look directly at Leafpool. 'It's useless,' she said softly, her voice filled with pain.
Leafpool swallowed. 'Yes. Yes, it is. I'm so sorry.'
From the corner of the den, a haggard Poppypaw buried her face in her paws. Honeypaw padded to their infected sister and entwined their tails, giving her a soft lick.
A hacking cough from the shadows left the tabby medicine cat scurrying away, hastily gathering pungent borage, tansy and catmint. Cinderpaw stared at her brother, hungrily taking in the flex of his fur, the slender whiskers that curled around his face, the delicate pink of his mousy nose.
'Goodbye, Molepaw,' she whispered, and left the den before he stirred again.
As she stood in the drizzling rain that sculped the dirt into mud, watching a bulky warrior lower her brother's corpse into his shallow grave, a sense of loss flowed through her, mingling with her pulsing blood, her tanglible pulse.
….
Rainpaw bounded through the pines, her paws light, her head slightly giddy with the rocking motion of her run. The musky color of the mouse's fur flashed in the trees ahead of her and she pounced, crashing into a thick tangle of crisp brambles.
She spat furiously and sprung back into the open, wildly surveying the forest. No glimpse of the prey. Rainpaw growled slightly.
Tigerpaw leaped down from a spiny tree, a limp squirrel dangling from her jaws. 'Bad luck!' she called; Rainpaw, uncertain of what to say, looked awkwardly away. 'Yes,' she responded finally, her voice barely audible.
The snowy she-cat purred as though she had said something clever and amusing; she was friendly no matter what. 'It doesn't matter.'
Rainpaw shrugged and trotted through the trees, taking in the tiring silver of the bark, the soft sway of the scented needles, the drizzle of rain. She thought of the warrior code.
The one thing, apart from StarClan, that held the Clans together. She'd never heard it. She knew only the unregulating, ancient words of the StarClan code, that Greenflower had given her lessons on as a kit.
Code one: A StarClan warrior may have no contact with the Dark Forest. They are our enemies, and we will keep them at bay to protect the Clans and ourselves.
The Dark Forest. Where the villanious cats went. Their shadowed afterlife. As a kit, she had fantasised about defeating them in an epic battle. The ancient words of the second code hummed in her mind.
Code two: Fading is like dying, and can never be thwarted. It is the final stage of existence, and one that should be accepted in dignity and the knowledge of a full life.
Code three: StarClan are the ancestors and guardians of the Clans. We must watch over them.
When she had heard the code from Dappletail and Brindleface, they'd told it differently. Code one: The Dark Forest is the place of cruelety, hope lost and penance. Have no association with them. Code two: Fading should be accepted in serenity and gratitude to the Founders and all who keep our utopia running. Code three: The Founders ensure the safety, health, wellbeing and fortunes of all cats of the Clans. StarClan cats need not bother deviating from divine peacefulness that dying has gifted them with to worry about the Clans below.
When she had told Greenflower about their version, the golden tabby had huffed and muttered something about corruption. Rainpaw had never been certain what that meant, and she still didn't know now. StarClan was perfect.
An authority-filled voice made her start and instinctively scurry into the shelter of a patch of glossy bracken.
'Let all cats wise enough to recognize my own wisdom gather under the Moonslope for a Clan meeting!'
There had been a few gatherings in Rainpaw's life, almost always Molewhisker scolding the group at large for whatever silly prank was in vouge. The call had always been 'Let all apprentices gather underneath the rock ledge for an assembly.' Nothing like… this. Rainpaw edged her brilliant green eyes around the patch of bracken, caught one glimpse of a clearing, a slope with Bluestar perched at the dubious height, and a group of cats swarming around the base, and drew back sharply. Suddenly terrified, she crouched low to the ground, strewing the bracken on top of her slender figure.
Bluestar frowned, unhappy with the sound of her call. 'It's very theatrical,' she murmured. 'I should rename the Moonslope.' Under her paws, the short silvery grass swayed.
Her associates (she didn't know what else to call them) clustered around the slope. She skimmed them, uncertain of the exact number of close followers she had, then shrugged and continued.
'My consultants of StarClan, we have been challenged in our rightful reign of our afterlife. After the betrayal of Spottedleaf last moon, we've been challenged in various other ways. All rebels have been faded.'
A brief cheer went up. Rainpaw flattened herself to the ground.
'The Dark Forest have been relentless in their actions. It's taking many of our warriors to keep them at bay, and still several innocents have faded. I've been informed that Dark Forest cats have found their way into our territory on the southern border. We are, however, running out of volunteers; to combat the threat, several dissenters were forced into the battle. I don't know how it went.'
She froze. Dark Forest cats in StarClan… the thought was nightmarish. She shoved it aside and strained her ears to hear more, although she was terrified of what she might find out next.
'The Clan's prophecy is growing closer. The three have not yet been born, but their time of reign and destruction looms nearer.' Bluestar paused. 'StarClan, the end of the Clans now seems plausible.'
…..
Rainpaw burst down the slope into the apprentice camp, her eyes paranoid and full of fear. She glanced behind her once and leaped down from a rock ledge into the sand.
'Where's the prey?' Dawnbright asked, approaching her.
'…what?'
'The prey,' the patchy she-cat meowed impatiently. 'You were hunting.'
'I didn't catch anything,' Rainpaw said, the familiar expression stiff on her tongue.
'Yes, you did,' Dawnbright snapped. 'When I came out to see you, you said you had caught something.'
Rainpaw froze.
'…No, I didn't, why would I say that?'
She had caught a crow, early in the trip, but it was long-forgotten buried under a pine. Rainpaw winced at the thought of the rotting scent of it, barely covered by the sweet reek of the leaves. She mumbled an excuse to Dawnbright and dashed off through the silver gorge, springing into her den and turning once in her nest.
I didn't hear anything I didn't hear anything I didn't hear anything I ran away when she said the end of the Clans I didn't hear anything else Nothing happened I ran away when she said
Rainpaw lied furiously to herself, her claws raking at the moss. Her tail kept flicking to touch the recent scratch that marred her stomach. I don't know how I got it
She rolled over
I didn't get it
I ran away when she said the end of the Clans
Code four: We are strong, and must remain so. Our descendants rely on their thoughts of us. Even if the stars burn and the sky fragments and the moon falls, we are, and must always remain, StarClan.
Short, but that's all I've got. There was a festival in my town this weekend, and a birthday in the family, so I was busy.
Um… if you read, review. I'm begging you. I'll do ANYTHING.
