Sorry for the long wait :c I had to catch up with my other story Warriors: The Collection and now I've finished this chapter! I hope you guys enjoy it! Keep those reviews up!
Snowflower's POV
Snowflower watched Brackenflame as he slept. His sleep had become infiltrated by nightmares. Snowflower let out a sigh and began to lick between his ears. She hadn't slept since that night, remembering Gorsetail's blood dripping from her teeth and paws as she exited their warriors den.
Snowflower remembered watching the blood drip off of Brackenflame as they padded to the river. Snowflower shuddered in horror at the fact she had turned a sweet innocent tom into a murderer.
Brackenflame let out a small whimper and she continued to lick between his ears. She noticed that Greycloud was shaking too, her nightmares flooding into her again.
Snowflower let out a sigh and stood up, nudging Brackenflame awake and stepped over the sleeping cats and woke a fidgety Greycloud.
Snowflower lead them outside and sat in front of them, "I haven't slept in three days…" Snowflower admitted, looking at their horrified expressions.
"I want to go to the moonstone and go apologize to Gorsetail and Pikeclaw…" Snowflower mewed softly. "Maybe then we can all get a decent night of sleep." She finished.
"Should we go get some traveling herbs?" Brackenflame asked, his fur fluffing out against the leaf-fall wind. Snowflower shook her head and looked to Greycloud who was being ominously quiet.
"I think you're half right Snowflower. But I won't apologize to Gorsetail for what he did" she muttered darkly.
"We'll see what happens" Snowflower murmured, nuzzling her sister. "Let's get going. We'll hunt on the way to keep our strength up" Snowflower mewed as she trotted towards the entrance.
Greycloud's POV
Greycloud looked at her sister wide eyed. How did she keep up her trot with no rest at all? She had done patrols nonstop since they had gotten back.
But she never seemed tired and when she admitted she hadn't slept for three days… Greycloud hung her head in shame as she remembered all her complaining about getting little sleep.
Snowflower had always comforted her and she noticed every time she woke up from her nightmares that she was comforting Brackenflame also.
Greycloud wanted to cry out her apology, but stayed quiet. Snowflower must be exhausted by now, but she kept up the steady pace as she took the lead.
Greycloud stopped as she scented a mouse and stalked it quickly, pouncing and killing it. She scooped up her kill in her jaws and quickly ran over to Snowflower.
"Here eat, you need it" Greycloud mewed around the mouse.
Snowflower shook her head and sat down, "I haven't been eating well either. Only when I felt like I was going to faint did I eat, I had to keep up my strength for the clan. I don't know about you guys, but I'm trying to redeem myself for all that I've done. And I hope that if I apologize that we'll be welcomed into StarClan. It's my entire fault if we're destined for Dark Forest and I apologize" Snowflower choked out, tears brimming at the base of her ice blue eyes.
Greycloud looked to her sister dumbfounded. "You can't possibly take all that blame! You weren't the only one there!" she growled angrily.
"You're being a stupid mouse-brain! Stop taking all this blame and maybe you'll be able to eat and sleep again. You're wearing yourself down when your clan needs you most!" Greycloud hissed at her sister. She dropped the mouse and began to stalk towards the high stones.
How could Snowflower be so dumb?! She wasn't the only one that was at RiverClan that night! Greycloud lashed her tail and made the pace quicker, hearing Brackenflame and Snowflower trip over the roots to keep up her speed.
As they crossed into WindClan territory a yowl sliced through their silence and four cats came running up to them.
"So you three are the trespassers!" a small apprentice snarled at them.
"Deerpaw, behave yourself." The oldest cat scolded. The tom stared at them coolly and assessed them over. "What are you three doing on WindClan territory?" he asked, eyeing the mouse that hung from Snowflower's jaws.
Snowflower pushed her way to the front and dipped her head, dropping the mouse at the tom's paws. "Greetings Rabbitflight, we're on our way to consult with StarClan. You see we've been having some trouble with RiverClan and we want a peaceful way to solve things" Snowflower replied respectfully.
Rabbitflight nudged the mouse towards his apprentice and Deerpaw picked it up hesitantly. Rabbitflight looked over the trio and looked more intently at Snowflower.
Greycloud tensed as she noticed through her sister's white fur she could see her ribs jutting out.
"Does ThunderClan not feed their warriors anymore?" Rabbitflight asked suspiciously.
Snowflower looked down to her paws nervously and stayed quiet unable to think of a response.
"She's been giving her share to the queens!" Greycloud blurted out, rescuing her sister from the awkward situation. "Snowflower has always been concerned for the entire clan, giving her share to those who need it most." Greycloud continued as Rabbitflight stared at her.
Rabbitflight dipped his head to the trio and moved aside to let them pass. "What a noble thing to do, you may pass" the elderly tom murmured.
"What?! They could steal our prey Rabbitflight!" Deerpaw meowed spitefully, dropping the mouse on the ground.
"Hush Deerpaw, the warrior code says to let all cats who are going to moonstone to pass" Rabbitflight murmured as the four WindClan cats disappeared from sight.
"We should hurry, the moonstone is about to light up" Snowflower meowed, taking off in a run towards Mothermouth.
Greycloud followed behind Brackenflame as he tried to catch up to his mate. Greycloud shivered against the cold wind and cursed herself for having normal fur unlike Snowflower whose short fur was thick enough to keep most of the cold out.
As they reached Mothermouth they dove into the cave, heading towards the moonstone. As the trio reached the moonstone it lit up brilliantly.
Greycloud gasped and padded up to it, settling herself down and waiting for the others to do the same. She felt Snowflower lay next to her and she pressed her nose to the stone, instantly falling asleep.
Greycloud opened her eyes and noticed Brackenflame and Snowflower next to her. "We need to find Pikeclaw… We need to apologize for ending his life so soon" Brackenflame informed the sisters, taking the lead to find Pikeclaw.
They heard a wail rise from the trees and they followed the pitiful sound. "It's okay Pikeclaw, you're here with us now" a she-cat murmured to the weeping tom.
"Mother that doesn't help! I was going to ask her to be my mate!" Pikeclaw wailed again.
The trio stumbled out of the bushes they concealed themselves in. Greycloud cleared her throat awkwardly and watched at Pikeclaw jumped up and glared at them, "You!" he hissed, his fur rising.
"I was going to ask Pebblecreek to be my mate! We were going to have lovely kits!" he howled in sorrow.
Brackenflame stepped up and dipped his head. "We're sorry to have killed you Pikeclaw. It was the wrong thing to do, even though you killed Cinderpaw." Brackenflame murmured.
Pikeclaw looked taken back and he looked down sadly, "I killed that grey apprentice? I-I didn't mean to…" Pikeclaw meowed apologetically.
"I was just doing what my mentor told me what to do" he mewed stiffly. Pikeclaw looked up to the three cats as they dipped their heads.
"I forgive you. I see now that StarClan punished me by killing an innocent she-cat. Thank you for apologizing." Pikeclaw meowed gratefully.
Greycloud felt her body jerk, and her heart began to beat a bit faster. She watched as a black smoke slithered out of her, a faint outline of a small ginger tom ran out of her and away from StarClan.
Snowflower watched something that was unseen to her and she looked to Pikeclaw who gaped his jaws at them in shock.
"Pikeclaw do you have any idea where Gorsetail is?" Snowflower asked softly.
"I suppose you killed him the night I died" Pikeclaw chuckled stiffly. "Gorsetail resides in the Dark Forest; I could take you to him if you want?" Pikeclaw offered.
Greycloud looked to the other two who shared the same look of shock. "Yes please" Greycloud meowed, surprising herself.
As Pikeclaw led the cats through StarClan he began to explain Gorsetail's life. "Well when Ashflower rejected him as a mate, and refused to have kits with him Gorsetail became a bit crazy. I had just opened my eyes that day he stumbled back into the camp muttering about his lost love." Pikeclaw meowed thoughtfully.
"We all thought he was talking about Reedfeather. She was a dark brown she-cat who had recently died from green cough. She was the only she-cat to have liked him" Pikeclaw explained.
"Wait… If you were alive back then why have you just only been made into a warrior?" Brackenflame asked, pressing closer to Snowflower.
"I was quite a troublesome kit, especially when Pebblecreek was born" the starry tom purred.
Pikeclaw began his story again "Anyways there was a queen in the nursery who had just had kits, they were RiverClan kits, but she gained one more over night from Sparrowflight. She wouldn't tell us where the kit came from just that it was given to her by Sparrowflight. It was the queen's right though we all knew the she-cat was a WindClan cat. So one night her kits had disappeared, Sparrowflight was deputy mind you, and the next day we found two bodies in the gorge. A WindClan she-cat and the kit named Featherkit. Rumor has it that Gorsetail killed that she-cat for giving birth to Featherkit who was an abomination to the clans in his eyes. The queen's missing kits appeared again at some point but were all afraid of Gorsetail. Sparrowflight died in a border skirmish with ThunderClan by the warrior named Kinkclaw I believe. And that was the day your mother died I suppose" Pikeclaw finished.
Greycloud halted at the memory of Kinkclaw limping into the camp, announcing that RiverClan was invading and raised her hackles, Snowflower was next to her looking to her paws distractedly.
"It's okay, since you're being guided by a StarClan warrior the darkness in you won't take over though I sense very little darkness in all of your hearts" Pikeclaw mewed oblivious to the awkward silence.
Greycloud watched as he sister quickly caught up to Brackenflame and she winced as she spotted Snowflower's ribs again. She should've been more attentive to her sister like her sister was attentive to her and Brackenflame.
Greycloud let out a sigh as the came to a completely different forest, her fur beginning to rise as she stared at Pikeclaw.
"Is this Dark Forest?" she asked quietly, not wanting to attract attention to them. Pikeclaw looked to Greycloud and nodded his head, suddenly whipping his head towards the sky.
"Gorsetail! Gorsetail show yourself!" Pikeclaw screeched at the top of his lungs. A sound of running paw steps became louder and Gorsetail crashed through a bush.
"So you've come to take me up on that offer then?" Gorsetail asked smugly. "Killing those stupid beloved kits of Thunder-" he cut off as he spotted Greycloud, Snowflower and Brackenflame and sat up straight.
"What are you doing here murderers?" he snarled at them.
Snowflower's POV
Snowflower lashed her tail nervously as Gorsetail snarled at them. "We came to apologize, or at least I did." She corrected as Greycloud let out a hiss of annoyance.
"It was wrong to kill you out of revenge. You had punishment enough from StarClan as I can see. You were destined to Dark Forest the moment you killed Ashflower" Snowflower hissed.
Gorsetail began to chuckle darkly and he grinned at Snowflower "Oh poor little Snowflower, always seeking out revenge. Your mother deserved what she got! She turned me down for no reason" Gorsetail hissed.
"Listen here you stupid fur-ball, our mother turned you down so she wouldn't be breaking the warrior code. She may have loved you at first, but when Spottedpelt saved her life she saw the errors of her way and turned you down!" Greycloud spat, pushing her muzzle into the tom's face.
"Now are you going to accept our apology or not?" Greycloud hissed. Gorsetail shoved her back laughed again.
"No I'm not, but thank you for that heartwarming apology" Gorsetail meowed sarcastically.
Snowflower began to growl but her body jerked in synch with Brackenflame as the remaining darkness slithered out of them. She watched as two cats, a tom and a she-cat appeared behind Gorsetail.
"You stupid mouse-brain! If you hadn't said thank you we would've gotten them in Dark Forest!" the tom hissed at him.
A third cat appeared and glared at Greycloud as she shook in pain.
Gorsetail looked behind and purred silkily. "Oh hello Mapleflower, Sparrowflight, and oh this is a surprise, Littlestar!" Gorsetail meowed.
"You're not going to apologize for ruining our plans?" Littlestar demanded.
Gorsetail glared at the leader and lashed his tail, "You may have been their leader, but I never saw you as my leader. You were to weak and soft hearted and you died because of it. You broke the warrior code so many times that I'm not surprised you're here" he growled jerking his head towards Sparrowflight and Mapleflower.
"Plus since I'm here I didn't want those lousy good doers here with me" he meowed, walking away from the group.
Pikeclaw stumbled back in fear as he stared at Mapleflower. "S-Sister? What are you doing here?" the tom choked out. Mapleflower looked to him and recognized him instantly.
"Greetings little brother, I suppose you wouldn't remember, seeing as you were constantly mooning over Pebblepaw, though I did make the mistake thinking it was Petalpaw" Mapleflower meowed to him.
Pikeclaw lashed his tail and narrowed his eyes into angry slits at his sister. "You were the one who killed Petalpaw?" he hissed harshly at her.
"Yes! You weren't spending nearly as much time as you used to when you developed that crush of yours. You were always with the two she-cats and never gave me the time of day!" Mapleflower spat, lashing her tail angrily.
"Mapleflower Littlestar is calling us" Sparrowflight muttered to her.
Mapleflower regained her composure and turned her back on Pikeclaw. "Some other time little brother" she meowed playfully as her and the black tom ran off.
Snowflower looked to Pikeclaw and felt sympathy filled her heart quickly and she looked to her paws in embarrassment. She had never felt this strongly before, the darkness in her heart was washed away and now she had full control of her emotions.
"It's time for you three to wake up, your clan will be wondering where you are" Pikeclaw meowed, disappearing back into StarClan.
Everything turned black and Snowflower screeched as she began to fall, voices screaming at her as she fell into oblivion
"Beware the traitor within the storm"
Eh I feel like this warning is a bit obvious, but it might be because I'm writing it and I know who the warning is about. But whatever I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!