A/N: Yuppers, it's another chapter. I'm alive.
Chapter Seven
For some inexplicable reason, it was easier for Blossom to rebel against her voice when she was in the same area as Mosskit. The pale kit's presence seemed to soothe her fury and tame her passion.
And down the winding tunnel they walked, the two kits and the goddess, until they reached their destination; ShadowClan's former training hollow. There Blossom lost her authority over the heart. There it took over, and she snarled at the kits and let her voice run free as they viciously trained.
"Fight! Fight, you useless worms!" Blossom yowled. She was in complete ecstasy. There was no more weariness holding down her paws, no more fighting against herself. Her voice was her, and it would remain that way. The goddess felt more abler than she had in moons as she moved fluidly to dodge the kits' feeble blows, as she twirled and leaped and kicked. She growled at them some more, her tainted heart leaping in delight.
Ahh. Bloodshed. An amazing thing.
And she agreed; Blossom agreed with every fibre of her being.
"Come on! Call yourselves warriors?" the black she-cat taunted. Mosskit was cowering in a corner of the hollow, flanked by her brother Shadekit. They merely dodged as she lashed out and swiped their tiny paws at her nose; nothing more, nothing less.
They're completely useless, said the voice. Why don't we . . . dispatch . . . them now?
The goddess was about to nod her head in agreement, but something was holding her back. That something made her stop right when her paw connected with Shadekit's muzzle, making her draw only a single drop of blood instead of tearing it off like she —or was it the heart?— had planned.
All three cats watched, entranced, as the crimson liquid ran off the smoky kit's nose and fall on to the floor with a splat. Then, after it had been swallowed whole by the earth, something in Blossom snapped. She remembered one heartbeat too late that she had not taken the blood required to keep her fueled.
And the she-cat collapsed, her mind dizzy and growing fuzzier by the second. But there was one thing she could make out, that familiar chant, and she whispered it as she fell into unconsciousness.
"Want blood. Need blood. Kit blood. Young blood . . . ."
Mosskit shook as she padded cautiously towards the limp black figure of Blossom. What had happened? Why hadn't Shadekit died from the attack? Why had the goddess only drawn one drop of blood?
Oh, questions like those were useless.
The pale she-cat could see her brother pricking his ears, as if he heard something. Mosskit stepped closer to the body and listened intently. She could make out a sound . . .
"Something about needing kit blood," Shadekit announced. Mosskit scrunched her face up, thinking. An answer to the strange words suddenly dawned on her.
"Of course! She never drank the blood of the sacrifices!"
Her smoky brother's eyes brightened. "Right!"
A pause.
"But then . . . who'll get the blood?"
The question brought back unwanted memories of a severed black head thudding onto the ground in their cave. Mosskit shuddered, her spine chilled.
"It was your question," she offered.
"But it was your idea!" the tomkit argued.
"Do we have to go back there? I mean," Mosskit mewed, aware of her stinging cheek, "why don't we give her our blood?"
Shadekit stared at Mosskit incredulously. "Are you crazy? She just let us go and now you want to die? We'd be better off running away."
"So why don't we run away?" Now that the thought had been spoken aloud, the pale gray kit's paws itched to move.
"I don't know. It feels . . . wrong, somehow, to leave her lying here like this." Her brother scuffed his paws on the ground, stirring up dust.
Shadekit had a strong instinct of the warrior code; he was and is an honorable, compassionate cat. He would never leave a cat behind and would help anyone, from they youngest kit to the oldest elder.
"Make up your mind," Mosskit snapped. She felt weary from the day's events, and it was an effort to even keep her eyes open. Maybe it would be better to go to sleep.
No.
This was an emergency. She couldn't ignore the close-to-death Blossom, no matter how vicious and crazy the goddess was. She owed Blossom her life.
"I'll give her my blood," Shadekit meowed suddenly. Mosskit noted that his paws were shaking and shook her head.
"It's okay. I can just go back and get the other bodies." It sounded even more scary, even more disgusting once the word bodies had been uttered. The she-kit immediately regretted having said anything at all. But before she could react, Shadekit had planted himself in front of her.
"Mosskit. Claw me."
"I can't do that!"
"You have no choice. Either both of us die from being hungry or something, or I loose a little blood."
Mosskit stared at her brother. His amber gaze was drained of its usual light, his pelt duller. How had he changed in appearance and spirit so much? It had only been that morning where they had been reunited, prancing in the meadow.
No one wants to purposely wound their own loved ones, and Mosskit felt the same. She knew she had to do it, but at the same time she couldn't.
"Okay." The word was only a whisper, a quiet breath, but it had been spoken. Mosskit thought she saw a glimmer of happiness in Shadekit's orbs before she closed her eyes and slashed his muzzle, deepening the cut that Blossom herself had given.
The pale kit stood by as her brother came closer to the goddess's body and pressed his nose to her mouth. She counted the drops of blood —one, two, three, four, five, six, seven— as they landed neatly, in succession, on the black cat's snout.
A pink tongue flitted out of Blossom's mouth and licked its lips. Shadekit stepped back and stood to Mosskit's side as the goddess rose elegantly. Her eyes —though when she had collapsed both were red, one was now green— fluttered open and fixed themselves on the two littermates.
"Why?" Blossom rasped. Her voice grew stronger, and she repeated the question. "Why did you do it for me?"
After all the terrible things she had done, Blossom never expected that anyone —let alone kits that had been condemned to getting murdered by herself— would help her. After all those moons of listening to only her tainted heart, she assumed all the other cats' hearts were as cold as hers was. The goddess was quite a cynical cat, that was for sure.
Shadekit was the one to answer. "We don't let cats die if there's something we can do about it."
The black cat shook her head, and Mosskit thought she could hear a small chuckle. "I wouldn't die. I would probably lapse into darkness. An eternal sleep, you could call it."
"An eternal sleep." The pale kit repeated the words, running them over her tongue. She liked them, liked the way they flowed and sounded. "An eternal sleep."
Blossom looked over at Mosskit. Was that a flash of curiosity in the goddess's eyes? The gray kit felt self-conscious as Blossom's intent gaze raked her pelt.
"Why are you so different?" Shadekit asked unexpectedly. "When we were fighting —training, you called it— you were so mean! And now you're . . . nicer."
"Am I?" the goddess asked softly. "You think I'm nice?"
"Now you are," Shadekit responded simply.
"Before that, I was controlled by the voice," Blossom explained. "I told you what happened. My heart grew tainted, and it controlled me." She spat the word controlled like it was some kind of insult.
"Will it happen again?" Mosskit asked timidly. She trembled at the thought of conversing with the goddess, the goddess that was feared and honored throughout the four clans.
"It probably will." The she-cat's meow was grim. "But when it does—" her green eye flickered, and Blossom took a deep breath and waited for it to return to the leafy color before continuing "—when it does, tell me to remember Blueflame."
"Blueflame?" Shadekit echoed. He opened his jaws to speak, but one glance from the black cat told both him and Mosskit that this 'Blueflame' cat —if it was even a cat, the she-kit didn't know— was a touchy subject.
"Any more questions?" Blossom asked briskly. Neither kit replied. "Good. Let me see your crouches, and I'll get you to learn how to hunt in no time."
Shadekit yawned. It had been a tiring day, filled with battle moves and hunting practice and clan lore and learning about the whole world. He trod tiredly after Mosskit, his tail drooping in exhaustion.
"Tired?"
The smoky kit jerked his head up as he heard his sister's sympathetic mew.
"Yeah," he admitted. "Completely worn out." Shadekit mustered some remaining strength to jump over a rock that was half his size. They were walking down the long tunnel again. How far did it stretch! It felt like moons since he had last had a proper nap . . .
"Where are we going?" his sister asked. Shadekit wasn't sure whether the question was directed at him or Blossom, but he answered anyway.
"I have no idea."
The goddess overheard their conversation. "We're going to the cave. You can sleep there."
Both kits emitted twin sighs of relief. Shadekit glanced up at Blossom. Why was she so strange? There were so many questions he wanted to ask but was too scared to, so many things he wanted to say but couldn't.
The desire to get information, the craving for knowledge, is common amongst kits and young apprentices of the new world. But never before has any kit wondered about their Goddess Blossom's past. Not till then.
"Well, there's still a long way ahead." The black she-cat stretched. "It'll be a good chance to test you."
Mosskit and Shadekit exchanged horrified glances. They wanted to rest, not get tested. There was a single heartbeat of silence before Blossom asked the first question.
"What are ticks?"
"Bugs," Shadekit answered after a moment of thought.
"Annoying bugs," Mosskit added.
"They suck your blood!" both chirped at the same time.
"And?" their 'mentor' prompted.
"And . . . they like elders?" Shadekit asked. He received a cuff on the head, one that was much harder than necessary. The smoky gray kit winced. Blossom shot him an apologetic look before turning to Mosskit.
"Well?"
Shadekit's sister looked mutely at the she-cat with wide eyes. Neither of them had an answer. The goddess sighed. "Very well. You use mouse-bile to get rid of them."
"But that's not fair!" Mosskit squeaked indignantly. "We're gonna be warriors, not medicine cats!" This earned her a swat of her own. Though it seemed like Blossom was trying to hold back this time, Shadekit observed that she still lashed out with more power than any normal cat.
"You two will be the only ones left with any useful knowledge about the old world if my plan is successful," the black cat hissed. Her green eye was flickering, her pelt bristled. "You must know everything."
Mosskit opened her jaws to retort, but Shadekit flicked his tail over her mouth and gave his sister a warning glance. He turned back to Blossom.
"Give us another question, then. It's only been one day," he meowed boldly.
The eye quickened in speed of flickering until it landed on green. Shadekit realized he had been holding his breath and exhaled. Blossom's fur had flattened.
"Okay. What is . . . the Moonpool?"
"A shiny pool," Mosskit replied. She seemed sullen after being cuffed and told off by her own sibling.
"And you drink from it," Shadekit supplied.
"Why?" the goddess asked as they continued to walk down.
Patience was not one of Blossom's strong suits. She had to work very hard on it, especially now that she had two kits that knew nothing about the old world to mentor.
"To meet . . . I forget the name . . ." Mosskit closed her eyes and tilted her face upwards, as if trying to listen for the answer.
"StarCats?" Shadekit guessed.
"Nice try. StarClan," Blossom muttered through gritted teeth. The smoky kit saw her claws were unsheathed. But then again, she had praised him.
The simple words "Nice try" was a sentence of approval that no cat would expect Blossom to ever say to one lower in position than her.
"Oh."
After Mosskit's small mew, the three walked all the way back in complete silence except for the sound of feet falling on the soft earth.
And then finally, they were there. Without pausing to look for any comfortable spot, Shadekit collapsed in a corner of the cave. His sister came over with him and they curled up together. Through a half-closed eye, he saw Blossom lay down in a mossy nest that seemed to be her usual spot. Shadekit yawned for about the fourth time that evening.
"Will we learn more tomorrow?" he asked drearily.
"Yes, much more," came the response. "You should sleep well, because there's a lot of work to do tomorrow." There was a brief hesitation, then warm words that were completely unexpected:
"Good night . . . good night, little ones."
"Good night, Blossom."
"G'night, Blossom."
A/N: Yay! Happy ending!
Yes, I know you hate me for waiting so long before updating. This is the third rough draft I've done. It's most likely my worst; seems kind of rushed, not that much detail, out-of-character Blossom, e.t.c. Good news is, I've finally filled that gap and will hopefully update quicker next time.
Also, a challenge for all the reviewers out there.
If we ever reach 40 reviews, I will reply to them in my author's notes. So if you're a reviewer to likes to be appreciated and you want to see my response, review every chapter and hopefully we'll make it to forty.