Yaaay! I finally got this finished I've had the first half of it done for a while now it was just a matter of time before I finished it :p
Chapter 10
Moonpaw stirred and opened her eyes to find herself in the place she had dreaded waking up to, the dark forest. She stood and took in her surroundings; it was quiet, too quiet. Nothing moved, nothing stirred, it was as though the forest and everything in it had frozen. Her tail tip flicked back and forth and her heart began to beat at faster pace. Suddenly, before Moonpaw could even turn her head, a brown blur barrelled into her side instantly pinning.
"Well aren't you a pretty little she-cat!" A brown tabby tom meowed fiercely, eyes glinting dangerously. Moonpaw shrank back underneath the gaze and tried to push the heavy weight off of her.
"G-get off of me!" She meowed her voice shaking with fear.
"Well if I did that then you would run away, and a pretty she-cat like you would make an easy victim for some of the evil cats that wander here." He replied smoothly
"Evil cats like you?" Moonpaw retorted bravely but regretted it instantly as a look of pure hatred was thrown at her.
"You would do well not to anger me, because if you do, I will just have to punish you." He snarled, and slowly unsheathed his claws and dug them into her shoulder making her yowl. "Not making any snarky remarks now, are you?" He hissed into her ear.
"Darkstripe! Release her!" A voice full of malice commanded.
Moonpaw looked to the direction of the voice; Tigerstar stood there, amber eyes blazing with anger. Darkstripe immediately stood up his tail falling between his legs in fear and submission.
"T-Tigerstar, surely you are not protecting this foolish apprentice." Darkstripe hissed. Tigerstar padded towards Darkstripe his eyes blazing.
"What would be wrong if I were protecting her?" Tigerstar snarled looming over Darkstripe who Moonpaw could see was literally shaking in fear.
"W-well she's a pathetic Thunderclan apprentice, what use would she be to us?" Darkstripe asked his ear twitching anxiously just waiting for Tigerstar to rip his throat out.
"As pathetic as you?" Tigerstar sneered looking down at the shaking form of Darkstripe in disgust. "And haven't we trained a Thunderclan apprentice before, who turned out to be a formidable warrior?" Tigerstar questioned. Darkstripe didn't answer her just looked down at his paws in embarrassment.
"W-who?" The small timid voice of Moonpaw alerted Tigerstar that the silver apprentice was still here. "W-who did you train?" Moonpaw amended.
"That is for me to know, and you to never find out." Tigerstar purred menacingly.
"Why am I back here again?" Moonpaw asked licking her ruffled fur.
"We didn't bring you here, you came here yourself. And I don't know why that is as you seem to hate it here so much… unless deep down you like it here. Or you feel guilty that you didn't keep to your half of the deal and train here." Tigerstar meowed loudly pacing around Moonpaw.
"I'd never like it here!" Moonpaw spat her fur bristling.
"Oh so it must be that you've come back to train!" Tigerstar meowed his eyes glinting in the dark of the forest.
"No! I don't want to train with you! I'm a loyal Thunderclan cat!" Moonpaw hissed her bristling.
"Oh yes, you were very loyal running away with that black Windclan warrior weren't you? How loyal you were to run away with him just as your clan was about to be attacked by badgers!" Tigerstar hissed.
"That was when I was Leafpool! I'm not Leafpool anymore! I'm Moonpaw and I will not make the same mistake!" Moonpaw growled.
"But you cannot change the past; therefore you cannot change what you did! You ruined your whole life by running off with that tom! And I've given you a second chance, not to fix the unfixable but to try again!" Tigerstar spat his tail lashing.
"I can't try again when you're trying to force me to training!" Moonpaw exclaimed.
"If you want to become a great warrior then the training you get here will help you dearly, besides you don't really have a choice… your mind keeps and bringing you back here" Tigerstar meowed boldly. Moonpaw ducked her head under the heavy glare Tigerstar gave her. She sighed in defeat knowing he was right. "Darkstripe!" Tigerstar snapped to the brown tabby who had been watching with a glint in his eyes. "You shall be her mentor!" Tigerstar ordered much to the dismay of Darkstripe.
"B-but T-Tigerstar! Don't you think I'm a bit advanced to tra-"
"Oh shut up Darkstripe! I don't want to hear your pathetic wining! My word is final! You shall train her and I don't want to hear you've been slacking off on her training because she is a 'pathetic Thunderclan apprentice'" Tigerstar snapped using Darkstripes earlier words. "You start training next moonhigh!" Tigerstar meowed as he turned back to Moonpaw. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted Darkstripe stalking off mumbling something about stupid ex Shadowclan leaders. Moonpaw watched as Tigerstar followed Darkstripe into the shadows of the dark forest. Moonpaw lay down and closed her eyes praying to Starclan that when she woke up she'd be back in her nest, safe inside the apprentices den next to her brother.
Moonpaw opened her eyes and let out a breath of a relief. The familiar roof of the apprentices den was above her and Sunpaw still slept soundly beside her. Moonpaw shook her head as though she could dislodge the memories of her dream. She stood up and walked outside, the sun was starting to rise and she was the only one up yet. She knew that there was no point in trying to go back to sleep and padded towards the thorn entrance. Foxleap was guarding the camp entrance and nodded to her as she walked past. Moonpaw began to run, her mind was confused mess and running seemed to take a small edge off of it all. Moonpaw raced through the undergrowth her heart pounding; she wasn't entirely sure where she was exactly until she burst onto the bank of the river. She padded down to the edge and looked at her reflection in the water. Her grey fur looked almost black in the night. Moonpaw sighed, grey fur, not the tabby pelt she was used to looking at.
Did I really want this? Moonpaw thought to herself. She knew she had the opportunity to fix things that went wrong when she was Leafpool, but, was it worth it? Now she was stuck with Tigerstar making her train in the Dark forest and Starclan had probably abandoned her for good.
Moonpaws ears pricked when she heard a rustle behind her. She turned around to see Lionblaze push his way out of the bracken out onto the bank of the river just a bit further up from where she was.
"Lionblaze!" Moonpaw called to her father who turned to look at her surprised.
"Moonpaw! What are you doing out so late?" He asked walking over towards her.
"I couldn't sleep, I had a nightmare." Moonpaw meowed. It was technically true.
"Oh, what about?" He asked licking her ear affectionately.
"It doesn't matter; it was silly now that I think about it." Moonpaw answered looking at her paws. "Who were your mother and father?" Moonpaw blurted looking at anything but Lionblaze. She already knew the answer perfectly.
"Why do you want to know?" Lionblaze asked his voice rough.
"Well you haven't mentioned your parents ever and I just wondered…" Moonpaw trailed off her eyes finally meeting her fathers. His amber eyes were clouded with sorrow.
"I knew I'd have to tell you one day." Lionblaze sighed. "My mother was the previous medicine cat before Jayfeather… her name was Leafpool." Lionblaze meowed looking out over the lake. Moonpaw faked a gasp of horror.
"But isn't it against the warrior code for a medicine cat to have kits?" Moonpaw asked trying her best to act innocent.
"Yes, that's why she lied about us being her kits, Squirrelflight pretended to be our mother so nobody would find out Leafpool had gone against the warrior code… again." Lionblaze was looking gloomily over the river.
"Again?" Moonpaw asked.
"Before that she fell in love with a Windclan warrior called Crowfeather, he's my father. They ran away together when Cinderpelt the medicine cat before Leafpool caught her. Leafpool returned for some reason." Lionblaze sighed.
"When did you find out Leafpool was your real mother." Moonpaw asked still already knowing the answer.
"There was a fire and I, Jayfeather and my sister Hollyleaf were trapped by the fire. Squirrelflight tried to save us but a cat called Ashfur stopped her and threatened to let us burn because we were her kits and he loved Squirrelflight. That's when she admitted we weren't her kits… and Brambleclaw wasn't our father." Lionblazes eyes were filled with so much pain it made Moonpaws heart ache. "We found out later who our real parents were. It was horrible to find out we were half clans and to know that a lot of cats would treat us differently because of our parents." Lionblaze seemed to be at the end of his short tale.
"Is that why you, Jayfeather and Brambleclaw hate Squirrelflight so much?" She asked.
"Yes, we hated Leafpool aswell. They both betrayed us." Lionblaze spat angrily.
"Why?" Moonpaw asked.
"I just told you." Lionblaze snapped.
"But Leafpool and Squirrelflight did so much to protect you from knowing you were half clans. I mean, at least they thought about what was best for you." Moonpaw meowed trying to reason with Lionblaze.
"But it wasn't best for us… Moonpaw it doesn't matter that was moons ago, you wouldn't understand anyway. Now let's go back to camp before every wakes up and wonders where we are." Lionblaze purred nudging Moonpaw to her paws and following her through the undergrowth. Moonpaw frowned. This is going to be a lot harder than I thought.
Hope you liked this chapter please review I enjoy reading them :D