Chapter 5
Brambleclaw flew through ThunderClan territory, dashing through the brush but careful not to leave a trail as he went. The sun was beginning its descent, and the tabby warrior feared he was running late. At the incredible, unnatural pace he was running, the ShadowClan border came up fast, and he nearly crashed right through the scent markings. He skidded to an abrupt halt; his neck snapped forward with the sudden stop.
It took him a moment to gather himself. Here he was again, at the ShadowClan border, for the second time that day. Except now instead of going to sort out his thoughts, he was going to commit murder. The thought chilled him to the bone. The ShadowClan border was like an invisible line, and he felt as if he set a paw across it, there was no turning back.
I can just go back now, he told himself. Hawkfrost will understand.
But he knew that was false. Hawkfrost would be furious, and so would Tigerstar.
They'll hate me.
The second the words ran through his head, Brambleclaw shoved aside his doubts and leapt across the border. Across the line within him, from the side of the loyal, moral warrior to the side of ambitious murderer. He knew it, he hated it, and he almost couldn't stand it. But that one poisonous thought...
They'll hate me if I don't.
Hawkfrost and Tigerstar were all he had left. Everyone else had forgotten and forsaken him. Without them, he'd be utterly and completely alone - and he didn't think he could handle that. He remembered the feeling, because he'd experienced it twice before in his life - the day his sister left ThunderClan, and yesterday, when that same sister and the love of his life betrayed him. The feeling was gut-wrenching and horrifying, as if the skin had been stripped of his body, the life sucked out of his limbs, and he was drowning in air.
He remembered. He remembered what it felt like to be alone. He didn't have friends, only cats he called Clanmates. They all treated him with wary respect, nothing more, and nothing near friendship. Squirrelflight and Tawnypelt had not just friends, but everything to him, but it turned he was nothing to them. He couldn't take it, couldn't live with it...
And then his brother and father had saved him. He was eternally grateful to them, and didn't know if he could go on living without them.
Tears of anger pricked his eyes, and Brambleclaw broke into a run. He had already been sprinting but this was an all out run, faster even than he had been running in ThunderClan territory. He had to get to his brother, and do whatever it took to stay by his side. Because not only did he owe his brother for saving him, and not only was he all he had left; but if Brambleclaw helped him, Hawkfrost would help him in turn.
He could have Squirrelflight. His life would come back to him. Reedwhisker would be gone, so Tawnypelt would come back to him, and he would have the love of his life by his side. His brother would be deputy of RiverClan.
Everything would be perfect.
It all seemed so straightforward and logical in his head. It all seemed so right. Brambleclaw spared a second's thought as to how he could have considered his actions wrong before, then abandoned the notion. It was right. Of course it was right. It had to be right. And it was for the best. Right.
Brambleclaw stepped across the RiverClan border.
x
The first thing that Squirrelflight noticed about Ashfur, as he emerged from the warriors' den, was that his fur was slightly rumpled. Not just in the sense that it was a bit mussed - though she made a mental note to pin him down and groom it later - but something appeared to be on his mind.
She slowly slid into step beside him. "What's wrong?" she asked softly.
He averted his eyes. "Nothing."
Well, now she knew there was something up. "C'mon, Ashfur. You can tell me."
"No."
The firmness of his response, oddly lacking in the smallest hesitation of sign of giving in, unnerved her. She was bursting with curiousity at the secret he was hiding from her. What kind of mate would hide things from his she-cat? She desperately hoped it was nothing, because she wanted to believe that he trusted her as much as she trusted him.
"Why not?" she prodded. "You know you can tell me anything."
"Not this."
His continued emotionless tone infuriated her. "What's wrong with you?" she demanded hotly. He stopped walking, his eyes focused intently on his feet. "I trust you with my life. You can't trust me with your thoughts?"
"You won't like it -"
"I don't care!" she snapped. "I don't like it that you're keeping it from me!" Her bright green eyes blazed, and the fire melted the ice Ashfur had built around his thoughts.
He sighed. "It's about Brambleclaw." He looked to her for a negetive counter, but her muzzle only quirked. "He's acting... really suspicious."
Squirrelflight rolled her eyes. "Is that really all?" He didn't reply, and then her anger came back to her in a giant wave. "What's the matter with you?" she snarled. "I chose you, isn't that enough for you? You're still intent on bringing Brambleclaw down?" She spat the words in his face, her hot breath stinging his eyes. "You selfish furball! Brambleclaw is still my friend, and if you have a problem with that, then..." she trailed off.
"Then what?"
"I... I don't know." Her anger dissolved, and her eyes clouded with sadness. It hurt Ashfur so much to see her like this, but what was he to do? He couldn't back down, but he couldn't stand her anger and sorrow.
"I can't leave you, Ashfur, because I love you," she meowed finally. "But you have to understand, Brambleclaw is my best friend, and I can't bear you insulting him and trying to break us apart just because you're selfish and jealous."
"That's not why I insulted him!" Ashfur protested. "Haven't you seen the way he's been acting? He's been sleeping really late every day. I was on night guard last night and when I walked in the den, he was twisting and muttering things in his sleep. And he's always out hunting alone -"
"Great StarClan, Ashfur! Have some sympathy!" She took a step away from him. "How would you have felt if I'd chosen him over you? He loved me as much as you do! He's pretty upset, to say the least. I wouldn't be surprised if he's having nightmares or if he needs extra sleep, or if he needs to go out on his own to sort out his thoughts. Can't you, his fellow warrior and Clanmate, understand this?" She stared fiercely into his stormy blue eyes. "Or are you still determined to make him feel worse?"
Ashfur looked away. "I - I'm sorry," he murmured. "I shouldn't have - I'll - I'll leave Brambleclaw alone."
"That's better," Squirrelflight snorted. He looked to her pleadingly, hoping now that he had apologized she would toss her anger into the dust, but it seemed she wasn't ready to forgive him just yet. "I have to go. Hunting patrol," she meowed shortly. She turned and stalked off to where Spiderleg and Dustpelt were waiting for her.
Ashfur's deep blue eyes followed her, but his paws didn't take a single step.
x
Squirrelflight was burying a mouse she'd caught when she heard Spiderleg's yowl. She dashed through the brush to where the long-limbed tom was trembling next to a silvery stick.
"What happened?" Dustpelt demanded, appearing at Spiderleg's other side. A squirrel hung limply from his jaws, which he promptly dropped into the dust as he came to the younger warrior's flank.
"It... it..." Spiderleg was on the verge of tears, his body shaking violently. "I'll sh-show you," he choked out. Squirrelflight and Dustpelt exchanged confused glances, but followed the shaken warrior as he stumbled to his paws and lead them a few foxlengths to the right. There, hidden in the brush, was a shining silver loop.
"The other one looked like this too, all loopy..." Spiderleg shuddered. "I saw this one but I ignored it, because I thought it would cause no harm, but then I almost ran right into the other one, and... and..."
Dustpelt frowned. "How did it come from being a loop to a shiny stick?"
"It... closed..."
"It closes around something?" asked Squirrelflight. Her brow knitted in thought. Her sharp eyes landed on a long stick, and an idea occurred to her. She took the end of the mottled brown stick in her jaws, and directed the other side of it towards the silver loop.
"What are you doing?" Spiderleg cried. "Get away from there!"
But Squirrelflight was undettered. She pushed the end of the stick through the loop -
SNAP!
Squirrelflight let out a squeal of terror and surprise, instictively letting go of her stick as the loop closed visciously around it, shredding it to a thin line of wood and nearly snapping it all the way through. She tumbled backwards and fell into heap of leaves, landing on the ground in a startled tangle of limbs.
"That's what it does!" Spiderleg mewled. "I almost walked into it, and..." he trailed off, but both Squirrelflight and Dustpelt knew what he was implying. The image of their Clanmate's neck trapped in the silver loop was almost enough to choke them as well. Had Spiderleg been trapped in the silver loop, he almost certainly would have died.
Dustpelt helped Squirrelflight to her paws, and the fiery-furred she-cat made her way over to where Spiderleg was curled up in a trembling ball. "It's alright," she soothed. The black warrior was horribly stricken by his brush with death, and it pained Squirrelflight that she had no idea what to do for him.
Comfort certainly wasn't Dustpelt's area of expertise, but the dusty-furred warrior took charge. "We've got to get him back to camp," he meowed. "And we definitely need to let Firestar know about these things. They're probably some sort of twoleg device."
Squirrelflight nodded. "Spiderleg, are you okay to go back to camp?" The young tom staggered to his paws in response.
"I'm fine," he meowed quietly. "I - I'm not injured or anything -"
"It's okay," Dustpelt meowed gruffly in his attempt at sympathy. Squirrelflight held in a giggle despite herself.
"Let's get back to camp," she meowed.
She forgot to pick up her mouse.
x
Leafpool was curled up in a corner of her den, collapsed with exhaustion. She'd had to go all the way to Twolegplace to replenish her supply of coltsfoot, since the patch by the abandoned Twoleg nest seemed to have died out. Her head resting on the soft heap of newly picked coltsfoot, her exhausted limbs let go of their heaviness and drifted off to sleep.
She didn't notice Spottedleaf coming up behind her until the deceased medicine cat was by her side. The warm, comforting scent enveloped her, and she breathed it in gratefully, savoring it. But then she realized it was tainted - fear scent.
"What's wrong?" she inquired. The tortoiseshell didn't reply, instead darted away into the mist.
"Wait!" Leafpool called after her, and broke into a run. She had to sprint to catch up and keep of with the StarClan cat. At last, panting and out of breath, they arrived at the bank of the lake.
"What's going on?" Leafpool panted, watching the eerily crystal clear water lap at the shore. The mist blanketed everything around the lake, so she couldn't make out exactly where they were. It was slightly discomforting. Maybe more than slightly. All she could see was the floating water, and the sliver of fog hovering around the line between water and air. Spottedleaf's starry form shone at her side, looking irritatingly full of energy and not even slightly out of breath.
Throat dry from running and panting, the current ThunderClan medicine cat instinctively bent down to take a drink from the lake. But as her tongue extended to lap at the clear-blue-green liquid, she noticed another color tinging the water below her eyes.
Red.
Blood.
Leafpool leapt back in horror. The red tinge was spreading rapidly through the water. She blinked, and suddenly the blood was drenching the river, wrapping scarlet tendrils around the unsuspecting teal-blue waves. She staggered backwards, as if trying to escape the murderous clutches of the terrifying water turned blood.
"W - what's going on?"
"Before there is peace, blood will spill blood, and the lake will run red."
"What does that mean?" Leafpool cried. "Please, tell me!"
"I can't," the StarClan cat meowed cryptically, the regret evident in her voice, "The meaning will become clear in time."
And then Spottedleaf was gone, and Brightheart stood in her place. The one-eyed she-cat loomed over Leafpool, her ears flattened with concern.
"Leafpool, are you alright? I heard you whimpering -"
"Yeah, I'm fine." But Leafpool knew she was not fine. Her fur was drenched and matted with sweat, and she felt the cold perspiration leaking into her eyes. She knew that those eyes reflected the horror of her nightmare, and it was all she could do to turn her amber gaze away from Brightheart.
"Are you sure you're okay?" the light-furred she-cat asked worriedly.
The medicine cat nodded shakily. "I'm fine. I just need... some time to think."
But Leafpool knew that that thinking wouldn't help at all. The chilling image of bloody water would haunt her until the prophecy was solved, but she hadn't the slightest clue as to what it meant.
She didn't sleep that night.
--
A/N: Painted Inkblot suggesting review replies using the little speech bubble thing next to your usernames. I'm going to experiment with that this chapter. If you don't want me to reply to you by PM in the future, just let me know. It's okay if you don't like random emails from a random author. :)
And about comments I'm sure we'll hear about Brambleclaw being OOC - I know he's out of character if you take Brambleclaw in this chapter versus Brambleclaw in Sunset. But we don't know how he would have acted should this turn of events have occured. He may have changed, he may not have, but I'm going on the basis that he did, and attempting to make it look as realistic as possible (without the whole Brambleclaw suddenly out of the blue goes berserk thing). So... yeah. You can ponder that. :)