Chapter 26

Well, well, here we are again with a fairly long chapter. :D Half written on my new Acer laptop. ;D So, what happens to Runningsky? Read on! :D Heheh.

"NO! RUNNINGSKY!" Bubblestar shrieked, leaning over the edge as if she could reach out to him and bring him safely back up to her. Mistyleaf and Dragonheart rushed over to drag her away from the edge before she fell off as well. She let out gasping cries as moisture clouded her vision and ran down her face.

"Bubblestar, Bubblestar, shh," Mistyleaf cooed, running her tongue over her leader's ear comfortingly. "Calm down, sister, it'll be okay."
"No it won't." Her voice cracked. "He's dead."

Mistyleaf opened her mouth, as if to protest, and then closed it, knowing that there was no way he could possibly have survived.

"Badgerface, Nightfur, follow me," Bubblestar ordered, standing and already trotting off. Confused, the two warriors ran after her. She ran across the ledge until it was more of a hill, and darted down it to the bottom until she reached the enormous body of the lion.

She stared at it for a moment, and then suddenly threw herself against it. The two toms with her gasped in surprise.

"Bubblestar!" Nightfur meowed in alarm. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Help me move it!" she ordered, ignoring the question. Nightfur and Badgerface exchanged an uneasy glance but obeyed the command.

When they finally rolled the lion over, it was still lying atop Runningsky, whose body rose and fell shakily and slowly.

"Runningsky!" Bubblestar meant for it to be a yell, but it came out in a cracked whisper. "Runningsky…"

Slowly, very slowly, his dull eyes slid over to her. She could hear his rasping breaths. She winced as if she could feel his pain.

"Runningsky…you'll live…" Her sentence hung in the air. She didn't know if it was a statement, a command, or a question.

His face cracked into a painful smile and a ghost of a laugh came from his mouth. It was then that Bubblestar noticed the blood slowly matting his fur. "Yoe…know…ayh…wo'n…" he slurred, his words mashing together. But Bubblestar understood: You know I won't. She let out an involuntary cry.

His paw twitched, as if he meant to move it toward her in comfort. But it was twisted at an odd angle and he couldn't move. "Dun…bay…sid…" Don't be sad.

His bright, determined face flashed through her mind, standing up straight with his tail flicking playfully. When he was a kit, an apprentice, a warrior… She'd known him her entire life. And now…

His chest rose, and then sank deeply. It didn't rise again. His eyes dulled further until there was no light left in them at all. He was utterly still and empty.

…He was gone.

Bubblestar wailed loudly and buried her face in his fur. He was still warm. He still smelled like Runningsky. A Runningsky covered with his own rusty scented blood.

Another loud wail, and then Nightfur pulled her away from the body. "Bubblestar!" he hissed. She didn't stop wailing. Growling, he jammed her tail into the ground with his paw roughly. She gasped suddenly and looked over at him, wide-eyed. "Bubblestar, you have to pull yourself together! You're the leader of a Clan! Come on!"

She stared at the ground, swimming in her sadness.

"Runningsky wouldn't want you to be sad," her adopted brother whispered into her ear, gentle now.

Tears clouded her vision again, but she nodded. She got up and raced up the hill, stumbling over herself. She would mourn for Runningsky privately later.

When she was standing at the front of the clearing again, she called, "Leaders, assemble some warriors to stay here and keep watch for any more creatures that may appear," she called. "All of the wounded and—and deceased can go back to your camps. I have taken the ringleaders of the operation back to RiverClan. They will be questioned there. Leaders, feel free to join the interrogation when things are settled in your own Clans." With a swish of her tail, she turned and raced back to the RiverClan camp, releasing a few select sobs for Runningsky. She collected herself before she arrived back in her camp, with her back straight and her eyes unreadable.

"Bubblestar," Vixenpelt greeted slyly, a glint in her eye that the RiverClan leader didn't trust.

"Vixenpelt." Her voice wasn't a hiss, but it dripped with vicious, poison acid. She batted a sheathed paw across the side of Vixenpelt's face. The other she-cat looked back up in surprise. "My friend is dead because of you. Explain yourself. Now."

Vixenpelt's eyes flicked to Chipmunkstripe, who sat silently close by. Then she returned her gaze to Bubblestar. "Is Vixenfur here?"

Bubblestar hid her surprise. She opened her mouth to say something, but Vixenfur had emerged from the nursery. "You monster," she growled.

Vixenpelt's tail curled. "Hello, dear sister!" she purred.

Bubblestar's eyes widened so much she must've looked like a bug. Her head swung around to face Vixenfur, who was watching Vixenpelt in disgust. "What…Vixenfur?"

Vixenfur hissed, a low, threatening sound. "How dare you show your face around here again. Why are you here?"

Vixenpelt's mouth curved into a lopsided smile. "Would you believe it's because I missed you?"

"No."

"Good, because that isn't why I came back."

Vixenfur's lips curled back into a vicious snarl. "Stop fooling around, Vixenpelt, and explain yourself!" she hissed.

Vixenpelt's tail twitched. "I think you know why I'm here, dear sister."

"I am not your sister, monster."

"And I am not a monster, so stop calling me that," Vixenpelt spat back.

"Stop fooling around."

Vixenpelt stood up suddenly, a severity in her eyes that wasn't there before. "Stop telling me what to do. You never change." A growl escaped her throat. "And neither will I. I'll always be 'fooling around', as you call it. But to me, it isn't fooling around. To me, it's serious work."

"You're right. It is serious. Because you decided you wanted all the Clans to pull together for your own selfish reasons, because you wanted to be with me and Vixenheart all the time!" Vixenfur's voice had been steadily rising, and when she ended her sentence, it seemed all the more eerily quiet. The silence seemed to weigh down Bubblestar's pelt like cold water.

"How dare you bring her into this." Vixenpelt broke the silence in a deathly tone.

"Why shouldn't I?" Vixenfur's tail swished in anger. "It's your fault she died, not mine."

Vixenpelt screamed ferociously and leapt at Vixenfur with unsheathed claws. Bubblestar sprang up and made to help her Clanmate, but Chipmunkstripe barrelled into her. Bubblestar struggled against her, desperate to make sure Vixenfur was all right. Chipmunkstripe pressed her paw hard against Bubblestar's neck; she could feel herself quickly losing air. Suddenly all of the weight was lifted off of her, and she gasped hungrily to fill her lungs. When she was on her feet again she swung her head around to see Coyotefur pinning a snarling Chipmunkstripe to the ground.

Coyotefur looked nothing like himself. His lips were pressed into a thin line and his eyes were narrowed and deathly. Hate seemed to seep from his pelt, and it sent a shiver down Bubblestar's spine.

A yowl brought her attention back to the two quarrelling she-cats. Their red pelts looked identical, the only difference being Vixenfur's black paws. Bubblestar sank her front claws into Vixenpelt's shoulders and dragged her backwards, off of Vixenfur, who put in another slash with her hinds paws to Vixenpelt's flank.

Bubblestar threw Vixenpelt to the ground roughly. "Calm down!" she hissed. "And explain yourself."

Vixenpelt sucked in a shaky breath and breathed out slowly, calming herself. When she spoke, her whiskers still quivered with anger. Whatever the story, she felt very strongly about it. "It's none of your business."

A wave of anger washed over Bubblestar. She held out a paw and slashed it across the copper she-cat's shoulder. "When you interfere with life in my Clan, and kill my beloved deputy," she growled menacingly, "it is very much my business."

Vixenpelt glowered up at her with resentment. "Vixenheart was my sister."

"Our sister," Vixenfur put in.

Bubblestar frowned. All three of them were named 'Vixen'? And hadn't Vixenpelt said she was from WindClan?

"Vixenheart lived in ShadowClan. I lived in WindClan, and, obviously, Vixenfur lived in RiverClan," Vixenpelt began.

"I still do live in RiverClan."

Again, Vixenpelt ignored her sister. She lowered her voice, glancing around the camp. "Not many cats know this—our mother was a medicine cat. Obviously she wasn't supposed to have kits. But as StarClan would have it, she died giving birth to us and our father was killed in a battle with some foxes."

Bubblestar's brain was working hard, trying to digest all of this new information. "How—wouldn't the other cats notice a medicine cat dying after giving birth?"

Vixenpelt shrugged. "The RiverClan leader at the time—Sapphirestone was his deputy then—said she had been killed by the foxes as well. Her body was buried before some cat could see how she'd actually died." She shook her head slowly. "Not a proper burial."

"There was a vigil held," Vixenfur added. "Only...without her body. They said the foxes took it."

Bubblestar felt a lump form in her throat. She could only imagine how horrible that must have felt.

"To make it less suspicious, our mother's apprentice and the leader sent the three of us to different Clans. And they named us all Vixenkit in remembrance of the foxes that killed our father and gave an excuse for the death of our mother."

A silence hung in the air. Vixenfur was staring fixedly at the ground, with wide eyes. She had never mentioned anything of her heritage. Then again, with a history like that, why would she have? Bubblestar suddenly wondered what the ginger she-cat had been thinking when she had given birth.

Bubblestar cleared her throat and shook her head to clear away all of the questions that had accumulated in her mind. She meowed, "Go on. Where does you terrorizing the forest come in?"

Vixenpelt tilted her head to the side with a crooked smile. "Well, now, that's the interesting part, isn't it?"

The interesting part indeed. :3 Please review, and that interesting part will be revealed sooner. ;D What do you think of Vixenfur's heritage so far? Drop a review telling me what you think. ;D Thanks for reading.