TORNADOSTORM
Tornadostorm felt his tense battle-ready muscles slacken slightly as Twilightstar ended the Meeting, though her dark green eyes still glinted with malice. The young MeadowClan delegate felt anger pulsing through his ivory paws as Twilightstar roughly shouldered her way through the throng of cats towards her own delegate, Cliffstorm. Cliffstorm's hackles were raised as he flicked his brown-striped tail in signal for CoralClan to gather, but, Tornadostorm realized, it wasn't necessary, as each Clan seemed to be huddled together, wary of each other. The only cat who was not segregated was a handsome golden tabby tom, who was speaking in a low, urgent voice to Seapaw, his deep amber eyes flickering cautiously from side to side. Tornadostorm flexed his claws anxiously into the dirt, wondering what secrets the CoralClanner was forcing out of the young learner, until he realized that she was speaking to the CoralClan healing cat. The dark gray tabby deliberately pushed his way through the huddle of CoralClan cats until he stood in front of Seapaw, and he cleared his throat loudly.
"You shouldn't be seen speaking with a cat from an enemy Clan, Seapaw," Tornadostorm spoke sternly, narrowing his yellow eyes as they passed over Goldenhawk, who raised his chin to stare defiantly at the MeadowClan delegate. The gray tomcat was shocked to see disbelief blaze in Seapaw's ocean-blue eyes, and she exchanged a long look with the CoralClan healing cat. Something passed between the two cats' eyes, but Tornadostorm didn't understand what it was, and he felt strangely unnerved to be in their presence.
"Fine, we were done speaking, anyways," Seapaw spoke rigidly, her voice with a steely glint to it. She dipped her head submissively to Goldenhawk, who let out a snort of amusement at her polite gesture, and stalked away to his own Clan, his limbs stiff and his tail held high in open defiance. Tornadostorm felt a prickle of guilt in his paws that he would seperate their friendship, but he pushed it aside; he was only trying to protect his Clan. Nothing good could come from associating with CoralClan, anyways. Seapaw stared after Goldenhawk as though she had never seen anything quite like him, and brushed her pelt against Tornadostorm's as she stormed past, her frustration apparent in each stride she took. The MeadowClan delegate let out a small sigh, and made his way towards Sandstar, who was standing impatiently at the edge of the Meteorplace. The light ginger tabby appeared pure white under the pale moonlight, and after making the head count, he turned tail and began to jog towards MeadowClan territory, his pace quicker than it had been on their way to the Meeting.
Tornadostorm, bewildered by Sandstar's rush, sprinted to catch up to his ruler, his muscles rippling smoothly under his battle-scarred pelt. Sandstar slowed his pace when his green eyes caught sight of Tornadostorm at his shoulder, and the delegate fell into step beside his ruler. Both MeadowClanners ran in silence for a few moments, listening to the sound of heavy pawsteps behind them.
"I was deeply troubled by Twilightstar's actions tonight," Sandstar finally rumbled in his deep voice, his dark green eyes thoughtful. Tornadostorm narrowly avoided running into a low branch, and stared at his ruler with attentive yellow eyes. The MeadowClan ruler continued, "It appears that she truly believes we started this war, and that we are as bloodthirsty as she is."
An image of Branchpaw's tattered and broken body lying on the ground flashed into Tornadostorm's mind, and he winced visibly as though claws had struck him. He thought of Stonepaw, slaughtered for this war, and Tornadostorm decided to ask the question that had been forming in his mind ever since Branchpaw had been killed.
"Are you sure we're not?" Tornadostorm asked, his golden eyes wide with uncharacteristic fear. "They may have started the war, but are we too proud to admit we're fighting a losing battle?"
Sandstar's light ginger stripes bristled defensively, and he snarled viciously at his delegate, his normally-calm face contorted with rage. Tornadostorm flinched inwardly, but he met his ruler's scorching green gaze evenly, his chin lifted in slight defiance. Suddenly, Sandstar's striped tail drooped, and he appeared more old and defeated than ever.
"I am sure," Sandstar meowed, though his words carried no conviction. "CoralClan protectors may die by our claws, but in principle, we are doing what is right. We must defend Fishingpond to the last breath, even if the whole of our Clan is destroyed doing it."
His words chilled Tornadostorm down to the bone, and he bit back a stinging reply, for Sandstar had voiced Tornadostorm's worst fear. MeadowClan wasn't going to roll over and give up the Fishingpond no matter what, and it seemed that CoralClan would stop at nothing to reclaim it. It seemed inevitable that one of the two Clans was going to die out, and Tornadostorm could only pray to IslandClan, as they raced side-by-side into the bramble tunnel at their camp entrance, that his Clan would survive this great tribulation.
SEAPAW
A warm breeze, carrying the faint scent of voles on it, stirred the quiet leaves of the acacia trees, which brushed against each other. A small pink nose twitched as it caught the fresh scent of prey, and a silver tabby tail lashed in excitement. Keeping her body low to the ground, a small silver tabby stalked forth towards the vole, her blue eyes focusing in as she caught sight of the vole nibbling on a berry it had found on the ground. She bunched her muscles, ready to spring, but suddenly, a flurry of tawny fur burst into the clearing, sending the vole scattering for shelter.
Seapaw sprang to her paws, indignation flashing in her ocean-blue eyes, her silver tail lashing from side to side as she hesitated, trying to decide whether or not to attack this intruder. She shot an angry glare at the light golden cat who stood before her. Scent alone should have told her to attack, for she caught a faint trace of CoralClan on the golden tabby. Softness got the better of Seapaw as she realized that the cat looked almost exactly like Goldenhawk, the CoralClan healing cat, except that this cat was a queen, and she had no white chest fur like Goldenhawk did. The sparkle of the stars shone in her deep amber eyes, and her golden-striped pelt seemed to be the color of the sun.
"Who are you? You look rather like Goldenhawk," Seapaw questioned the beautiful tabby, surveying her through narrowed blue eyes. Instinct told her to trust the queen, but the scent of CoralClan was enough to make her suspicious. The beautiful tabby padded forward, her muscles rippling economically under her sleek golden fur. The CoralClan she-cat touched her nose gently to Seapaw's, who flinched at the friendly contact.
"I'm Flamefrost," The golden tabby she-cat meowed, her voice sounding like a far-off echo. Seapaw dimly registered the name in her mind, but felt frustration pulse through her as Flamefrost continued to stare at her expectantly. What am I, a giant rabbit that everyone needs to stare at?
"Right, so I'll see you later, then," Seapaw meowed in an annoyed tone; she had seen the strength in the small tabby's stride, so she wasn't foxbrained enough to pick a fight, but she was still angry that Flamefrost had scared off the vole. She turned around, her silver tail-tip twitching in frustration, and let out a mrrowr of shock as she saw Flamefrost standing right in front of her. Seapaw looked around wildly, and saw, to her frustration, that Flamefrost's golden eyes were gleaming with amusement. Seapaw turned around yet again, and saw Flamefrost standing less than a whiskers-length away.
"I don't mean to be rude," Seapaw began, her ocean-blue eyes narrowing into slits, struggling to be patient, "and that is a neat trick. But can you kindly get out of my way? Sandstar will be annoyed if I come back empty-pawed."
Seapaw didn't miss the deep sorrow that flashed in Flamefrost's light amber eyes, and the silver tabby looked away, hardly able to look at her beautiful face, which seemed broken with sadness. Flamefrost took a deep steadying breath and sighed. The wind seemed to sigh along with her, the rustling of the leaves growing louder. Seapaw stared uncomfortably at the golden tabby, her head tilted to one side in bewilderment.
"I have a message for you," Flamefrost mewed urgently, all sense of fun that she had had a heartbeat ago vanishing faster than morning dew. The silver tabby, bored, scraped the earth with a front claw, her paws itching to get away from this enemy protector. "A time of great tribulation is coming to all of the Clans."
"Right, okay. Why don't you tell the rulers if it's so important, then?" Seapaw growled, her temper getting the best of her. Goldenhawk wasn't the most annoying cat in the Clans, it was this trespassing CoralClan queen! She was a learner, a busy one at that, and this cat would not let her go about her business. Flamefrost's amber eyes glowed faintly with amusement.
"Because, Seapaw, they are the ones destroying the Clans," Flamefrost's murmur was quiet, but her words sent chills down Seapaw's spine. It was then that Seapaw realized that she must be dreaming. The silver learner took a step backwards out of shock, her disbelief apparent in her wide blue eyes and stiff movements. Seapaw tucked her light gray tail neatly over her paws and leaned forward, ears pricked attentively as she drank in every word the dead CoralClan cat meowed.
"So what can I do about it? I'm just a learner," The light gray tabby's voice was no longer degrading and harsh, but one of genuine concern, and she shot Flamefrost a look of helplessness. Flamefrost let out a snort of exasperation, and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, "Kits."
"The Protector has come, young one," Flamefrost murmured, her voice more gentle than the soft rasping of a kit-bearer's tongue against her newborns' drying fluffy pelts. "The Protector has come, but history will repeat itself. You would do well to follow your heart. Be brave, and accept the fate that IslandClan has given you. If I had done that, I might still be alive..."
Seapaw saw concern and fear etched in the golden tabby's eyes, and for a moment, she forgot that Flamefrost had been CoralClan when she was alive. She started to rush forward to press her flank to Flamefrost's, but Flamefrost disappeared with a gentle sigh of the wind. The forest was plunged into darkness, and the ground gave way beneath her paws. Seapaw was falling down, down, down, her body twisting over and over as she fell. She heard panicked yowls of terror and she realized that they were coming from her own muzzle as she felt a big paw prodding her side.
"Seapaw! Seapaw, wake up!" Seapaw scrabbled around in her nest, her claws raking moss for several moments before she realized that she was no longer falling. Embarrassed, she sat up, her breath short as if she had sprinted around the whole island in a matter of heartbeats. She blinked her cobalt eyes up at her brother, Duskpaw, who was staring at her with something like fear in his huge golden orbs. Another quick look around the den showed that Typhoonpaw and Mudpaw were both watching her like hawks.
"Sorry," The silver learner muttered, feeling as if she would sink through the floor of her den in embarrassment. She rose to her paws and swiftly padded out of the den, her heart still hammering faster than a woodpecker's furiously-working beak against a mangrove tree. Several pairs of curious eyes turned to watch her as Seapaw quickened her pace and made her way through the bramble tunnel, the hot sun beating down against her light gray pelt. Seapaw wasn't sure where she was going, but she wanted to be away from her Clan in her horrible, horrible dream.
She sprinted out of the camp, a blur of shining silver-striped fur, her bushy tail streaming out behind her. Seapaw ran and ran until she found that she could not go on, and her breathing was labored. Exhausted, she sank to her paws in a clump of reeds right beside the Fishingpond. She parted her jaw and scented CoralClan, fresh, on the breeze. Seapaw froze, her hackles raised and her muscles tightening instinctively. The learner was too tired to fight, and too out of breath to flee, so she only prayed that she would be hidden from view.
Her heart caught in her throat as she saw a handsome golden tabby confidently pad up to the Fishingpond, ignoring the scent markers that MeadowClan had so carefully set. Frustration pulsed through her tired paws, but she could not bring herself to hiss at the CoralClan cat. She rose to her paws, her tired muscles screaming in protest, and slowly trotted up to the tabby, her tail swishing in anticipation.
"Goldenhawk," She felt a glimmer of satisifaction as the golden-brown tabby jumped, startled, and turned to face her, his hackles raised. Goldenhawk relaxed a heartbeat later, and hesitant warmth flooded his deep amber eyes, as if he wasn't sure if he should be happy to see her or not. He dipped his head politely to the silver learner and gave his white chest fur a few licks, obviously sensing the awkwardness between them. How had she never noticed how big her legs seemed for her body, how awkward her strides were, how limply her tail hung from her? Goldenhawk moved with a sort of quiet grace that she could never hope to acheive.
"Hello, Seapaw. I'm not doing anything wrong," She thought she could detect a hint of guilt in his voice, but, gazing into his pride-filled eyes, she figured she must have imagined it. The pearly-gray tabby twitched her whiskers, trying to hide her amusement at his obvious embarrassment at being caught trespassing.
"Yeah, sure you're not. That must be why you didn't notice the border?" Seapaw indicated the heavily-marked trees with a careless flick of her tail. She didn't have time to deal with Goldenhawk's blubberings about how he happened to wander over the border. Goldenhawk's tawny eyes gleamed, and he took a step towards her, fake anger flaring in his eyes.
"Maybe I just wanted to see you," He growled in his low voice, his yellow eyes flashing. With a jolt, Seapaw realized that he was teasing her, and her insides squirmed. She ignored the feeling of increasing heat in her paws, and forced herself to meet his amber gaze evenly. She felt as if she would rather be anywhere but here, in this exact awkward moment, and she finally broke away from his burning gaze, focusing her attention instead on a large orange-and-black butterfly gaily fluttering past.
"Well, I've just been waiting here all day for you, Goldenhawk," Her voice was dripping with false sincerity, and Goldenhawk took another step towards her, his copper-colored coat gleaming in the dappled sunlight flittering in between the branches of the trees overhead. "It's been terribly lonely."
"I was just...I was just...just looking for some juniper berries, that's all," The wheat-colored tom stammered, and Seapaw felt a prickle of satisfaction that she had robbed him of his quiet sense of dignity. Goldenhawk murmured something incoherent, and the silver tabby nodded absent-mindedly, not really paying attention to a word he was saying. Her ocean-blue eyes were thinking of another golden-colored tabby who had been sitting in a clearing similiar to this one.
"Who was Flamefrost?" Seapaw suddenly quipped up, interuptting Goldenhawk's ramblings about how all of the CoralClan juniper berries had been killed by a frost. The light tan healing cat stopped mid-sentence, his body suddenly very tense and stiff. Tension crackled between the two cats like lightning, and Seapaw saw that she had hit a nerve in the CoralClan tom.
"She was my trainer," Goldenhawk murmured quietly, his eyes unfocused, as if he could almost see the dead CoralClan healing cat in front of him. Seapaw allowed him to be lost in the memories of the beautiful golden tabby, and she tucked her silver tail neatly around her front paws. The CoralClanner added, "She was the smartest cat in the whole forest. Had a great mind for herbs, and a very strong bond with IslandClan. Twilightstar always told me I'd have huge pawprints to fill after she retired. But then, in the Storm season before last, she disappeared. Went out to collect marigold leaves in the morning. She told me to watch over the Clan. And she never came back, we never found her body. Her scent trail led into the ocean. We think she drowned."
She looked over again at Goldenhawk, who was sitting with his shoulders hunched over and his head bowed low. Pity wrenched at her heart as she imagined how she would feel if Sandstar went out on patrol one day and never returned. Softly, as so not to disturb his memories of his trainer, Seapaw padded up to him and sat beside him, giving one of his golden ears a soft lick. He did not flinch away from her touch, only blinked up at her with sad, amber eyes that broke her heart.
Disappeared? Seapaw felt the tabby fur along her spine prickling with apprehension. Healing cats didn't just disappear on the island. If you drowned in the ocean, your body would eventually wash up on shore. It had happened to every Clan; a protector would disappear, and the Clan would hold out, hoping that they had survived. But each time, they returned to the island. So how exactly did Flamefrost die? The light gray tabby wondered, hoping that her curiousity was not too apparent.
"Why did you ask about Flamefrost?" Goldenhawk's puzzled voice broke into Seapaw's deep thoughts as he meowed, "She died before you were even born, and I can't imagine why Sandstar would mention her to you."
She bristled automatically in defense, wondering how to explain her dream to the CoralClan cat. If you explain it to him, A voice piped up in the back of Seapaw's mind. She pushed away the thought; she trusted Goldenhawk, for even though he was from an enemy Clan, he was the healing cat. He wouldn't betray her...right?
"I had a dream," Seapaw began hesitantly, and she watched his deep auburn eyes grow wider and wider as she told him about her dream. An uncomfortable silence hung over them like a misty cloud, and she began to wish that she hadn't trusted Goldenhawk But the doubts clouding her mind vanished like fog penetrated by the shining sun as she looked into his amber orbs, deep with concern. Concern, she realized, for her.
"I don't know what that's all about," Goldenhawk admitted, his tail drooping slightly as he realized he could not interpret the dream for her. Seapaw felt a little crestfallen until he twined his chestnut-colored striped tail with hers. Her paws suddenly burned, and she felt strengthened by his touch. Goldenhawk meowed, "When I travel to the Meteorplace at the half-moon, I will ask the Protector for guidance."
He rose suddenly to his ivory paws, and Seapaw admired the way he had gotten over his grief quickly for the sake of his Clan. Seapaw, too, got to her paws, and followed him to the border. Punguent scents of enemy protectors filled her nostrils, and she briefly pondered why Goldenhawk smelled better than the rest of his flea-bitten Clan. He began to pad away from her, and she could not help but call after him.
"Will you tell me what the Protector says?" Seapaw called, feeling a bit embarrassed to be acting like a kit left behind on a hunt by its mother. The handsome golden tom turned around, his pelt turned to flame under the hot sun. The silver learner felt like a mere kit under his burning amber gaze. Why had she thought that maybe Goldenhawk would want to tell her? Why would he concern himself with a cat from another Clan, a learner, at that? She knew what his answer would be, what it should be, and was thoroughly shocked to see the CoralClan healing cat nod as if it were the best idea he'd heard in moons.
"I'll find a way to see you again," Goldenhawk promised, and bounded away, his muscles rippling evenly under his neatly-groomed pelt. It was then that Seapaw noticed that he had left the juniper berries behind. She felt something inside of her squirm again, but she pushed the new feelings away, convincing herself instead that it was a coincidence that they had had a civilized conversation. It still didn't change the fact that he was annoying, obnoxious, rude, and self-centered. So he had managed to be respectful once. Big deal.
Any cat would be curious if you told them you've been making small talk with their dead trainers. You still hate him. She told herself, trying very hard to believe it. But as she trotted back to the camp and pushed her way through the bramble tunnel, all she could think of was Goldenhawk's striped tail, twining with hers, dark golden against pale silver.
A/N: Wow, almost 4,000 words:) R&R, please!