Spottedflight, tired from her exposition past the fence the other day, half-heartedly dragged a massive pile of thorns and brambles towards the camp. Haypaw and Sagepatch had found a shaded area that would be a good place to train apprentices, but it had been full of wild roses and similarly spiky plants. Ravenstar had decided that they would clear out the bushes and use them to build a protective wall around the camp, killing two mice with one pounce.
Covered in small cuts and utterly unhappy, the tortishell warrior began pulling apart the heap of sharp plants, stacking portions of it onto the growing wall around the clearing. The plan was to make the wall as tall as they could, leaving a gap for entrance that was shielded by the broad trunk of a tree. The work had proved itself to be arduous, painful, and dull.
"I bet our ancestors never had to do this," a voice complained loudly. Spottedflight turned her head with mild interest to see Darkmoon inspecting a thorn in his pad. Jayspots was weaving leaves and twigs into the wall of the new nursery. "They just found the caves and lived in them."
"If you find some caves nearby for us to live in, do tell," Creekstone meowed coldly, appearing beside the off-white tom. "Even Smudgenose is doing his part; I'm sure you can find it in yourself to work a little harder."
Darkmoon scowled, picking up a mouthful of leaves and disappearing around the other side of the den. It was built between two trees that were close enough together for their branches to interlock. Using larger branches they had built walls around the two, and now they were reinforcing the cracks.
Her pile of materials depleted, Spottedflight turned and began the trek back to the training hollow. The sun felt hotter than normal, and Spottedflight felt an overwhelming wish to curl up in some shade and sleep for a moon. As she padded through the grasses she heard a faint whispering. Drawing nearer, the words started to become clearer, carrying to her ears.
"...She didn't mean it, Puddlefrost."
"You saw her, Spidersun. She meant every syllable of it."
"I'm sure she was just angry," Spidersun persisted. Spottedflight could see the tips of his ears wading through the meadow back to camp two fox-lengths to the right of the tortishell warrior. "She's your sister."
"What's that got to do with it?" Puddlefrost wailed. "She wants to attack me, tear me limb from limb."
"I was there," the black tom told her. "And she said she didn't want to attack you."
"But she would attack me!" the gray she-cat moaned. "What did I ever do to her?"
Spottedflight didn't bother to listen to the rest of the conversation. She padded away with a stony expression, the pain of her scratches extinguished. Spidersun and Puddlefrost had been talking about her: there was no question of that. Despite how much she didn't want to care, her sister's words had stung. What had Puddlefrost ever done to her?
You know full well, murmured the dark beast inside of her. She's been inconsiderate, ignorant. She refuses to learn as you refuse to take her unawareness.
Nodding slowly, Spottedflight began to tear clumps out of the mass of brambles. Until she learns she has no reason to be shocked, she told herself. The dark beast purred with content at this. She deserved what she got. You don't take it back, it pushed. "Yeah," Spottedflight murmured. "Yeah!"
"Uh, you okay, Spottedflight?"
She looked up in alarm to see Birchpaw watching her from a few fox-lengths away. A pile of herbs lay at his paws, evidently dropped so he could speak to her. Spottedflight felt her face get hot. "I'm fine," she muttered as she began to lug her haul back to camp. "Perfectly fine."
The medicine cat apprentice watched awkwardly as a flustered Spottedflight inched past him. The tom was her little brother, but they had grown apart. Gone were the days of Spottedflight visiting her little siblings and Sagepatch. She had hardly seen Birchpaw or Haypaw since they had become apprentices.
His amber eyes were so like her own...
Family, spat the dark beast, rising from its satisfaction. He is nothing to you. You operate without SkyClan.
He's innocent, though, Spottedflight thought sadly as she tugged the brambles along behind her. The beast let out a noise almost like a laugh, but it was heavy and cruel. Spottedflight tried to recoil, but it was inside of her. She couldn't expel it, it didn't take orders. There was a moment of fleeting panic before it spoke again.
No one is innocent anymore, it reassured darkly. It is too late for innocence.
Before Spottedflight could further speculate the matter, she had reached the camp. She padded along the finished part of the prickly wall and began adding on to the end. It was then that she heard voices again, carrying over the thick barrier of thorns.
"Quit moping, Puddlefrost," Mistsong sighed, picking up a mouthful of branches and patting them into place in a gap near the bottom of the wall of the warriors'-den-to-be. "There's no use sulking over lost prey."
"Lost prey? Spottedflight is our sister! That's like a lost pheasant."
"Spottedflight isn't leader of StarClan, yet you're making her out to be."
"I value family," Puddlefrost meowed firmly. The pang in Spottedflight's chest was stomped on by the dark beast, who scowled heavily.
Mistsong smiled slightly. "And that's a big part of who you are, sis. But you can't get your fur in a tangle if cats don't always agree with you."
Puddlefrost merely sighed. Spottedflight watched her two siblings with smoldering amber eyes. The beast was roaring inside of her, excited. The tortishell warrior gasped in pain. She found she had embedded a thorn in the roof of her mouth, clutching firmly onto a rose branch as she had listened to Mistsong speaking to Puddlefrost.
Dropping the branch, she stalked off to see Thymeheart, angrier than ever.