Warriors New Rivals
Chapter 15
"Birchpelt?" Splashheart had stormed out of the camp after speaking to her brother and had gone looking for the tom she cared for so much.
"He's not here…" A tom's voice had meowed to her from the opposite side of the stream.
"Where is he?" She hissed back in reply.
"He's dead!" They growled back. Splashheart went silent with shock.
He can't be… Splashheart couldn't believe he was gone.
"You're lying!" Her neck fur was raised so she wasn't afraid to get what she wanted to hear.
"Fine, you can believe that but if you want to know how he died then ask his mother!" A she-cat came out from behind the tom and sat down calmly at the shore.
"How did he die?" Splashheart asked wearily.
"He died on his way to meet you!" The she-cat spat.
"How did he die?" Splashheart had bit back a harsh reply and pressed the she-cat.
"He was killed by a fox searching for easy prey," the she-cat grieved.
"I'm so sorry…" Splashheart replied holding back her own grief.
"You should be!" The tom spat, leaving the she-cat to grieve.
"I…I had no idea this would happen…" Splashheart stammered.
"If he hadn't fallen in love with you he wouldn't have been dead, he would be safe in his nest caring for his clanmates," the tom replied turning tail and fleeing deeper into Streamclan. The she-cat faced Splashheart and hissed before following the tom down the same path.
"Oh Birchpelt, I'm so sorry!" Splashheart faced the sky and called out to her warrior ancestors.
"You'll be with me soon enough my love…" A voice breathed into Splashheart's ear.
"But I'm so young, it will be moons before I join you," she replied.
"Remember Splashheart, not every warrior can be trusted, forgotten warriors will come back to haunt you but honoured warriors will stay to protect you…" The voice drifted away slowly until all that was left was the slight breeze to show it had been there.
"Splashheart, are you alright?" Splashheart turned around to see Ashclaw sitting behind her, her eyes filled with concern.
"No, no I'm not" Splashheart ran straight for the newest arrival to Roarclan and placed her head on her shoulder, she felt a cat's tongue softly rasping on her head.
"What's happened?" Ashclaw meowed in between licks.
"Promise me you won't tell anyone?" Splashheart meowed.
"I promise, it will be our little secret…" Ashclaw promised.
"I fell in love with a cat from Streamclan and I just found out that they died," Splashheart blurted out splitting from Ashclaw so she could face her.
"Oh…" Ashclaw seemed quite surprised but also sympathetic.
"I'm sorry," Splashheart realised she had probably seemed quite mad when she blurted out at Ashclaw.
"It's alright, now I have to tell you something," Ashclaw added.
"Why?" Splashheart tipped her head slightly.
"Because you told me something," Ashclaw replied.
"Oh ok, tell away," Splashheart meowed cheerfully.
"Well, you know how I got so terrified when Chestfall held me down?" Ashclaw meowed.
"Yeah, why?" Splashheart really wanted to know why she got so frightened but she didn't want to ask.
"Well when I was younger, about an apprentice's age, I got trapped under a tree that had fallen on me; my family had also been trapped under the same tree but a twoleg found us. It was too late for my family but I was still barely breathing…" Ashclaw was facing the ground her face unreadable.
"Ashclaw, you don't have to continue if you don't want to," Splashheart soothed the she-cat.
"No, its fine, as I was saying, the twoleg found us and they took me with them leaving my dead family under the tree. I had no idea where the twoleg was taking me but all I knew was that I was in so much pain that I didn't care. The twoleg took me to a place infested with twolegs and other animals. Soon after we arrived I was taken somewhere else, it was there that all the torture began, they stabbed me with sharp thing and poked at all my sore parts and shaved all my fur off…" Ashclaw hissed at the ground as if she were back in this horrible place.
"Wow, that's horrible…" Splashheart placed her tail-tip on Ashclaw's shoulder and gave her cheek a swift lick.
"Whatever happened after that I can't remember, the only thing I remember after that was when I woke up in a makeshift den in the forest near the Roarclan camp," Ashclaw added.
Ashclaw had explained how she had watched Roarclan live and had named herself Ashpaw and trained with trees and leaves to understand the warrior code, then when it was time she named herself Ashclaw.
"Did you ever visit the medicine den?" Splashheart had to know if Ashclaw was the cat she saw in the medicine den.
"No, but I know that there are warrior ancestors who didn't get to go to Starclan and they sometimes turn themselves into other cats so they can go to camps and gatherings," Ashclaw meowed.
"How do you know about them?" Splashheart asked the she-cat.
"I got visited by a Starclan cat in my dream one time and they told me about all your rules and they even gave me some medicine remedies," Ashclaw purred obviously remembering the dream.
"Thank-you Ashclaw but I should really get back to camp in case they need me," Splashheart purred. Ashclaw simply replied with a brisk nod before pelting off another way.
She's probably going hunting…