Content warning: graphic death
Dapplestar rested her tail among her paws as she waited for Icepaw to return from her scouting. When the white she-cat's small face emerged in the entrance of her den, Dapplestar gestured forward with her tail. Icepaw padded over to her, her blue eyes flat and unfeeling as she lowered her head.
"Report," Dapplestar ordered.
"WindClan's guards are down," Icepaw reported. "They have lost several warriors in the last moon because of Peartuft and Moonshade. One of their warriors has still not recovered from wounds she received in battle. She is very sick. Many of their warriors are injured in the medicine den."
"How is Moonshade doing with his attacks?" Dapplestar inquired.
"They are faring well, but they are not enough to destroy WindClan yet," Icepaw replied.
"Has Shimmerwing helped in any way?" Dapplestar asked her apprentice, remembering the discussion between the two she-cats happened. Anger made Dapplestar's fur bristle as she recalled how Shimmerwing refused to tell her what Starlingfern had said about her. That cursed medicine cat. "They have been there for over two moons."
"Her forces have made a difference, but not enough," Icepaw said. "I think there's only one way to destroy WindClan." The meaning behind Icepaw's words were implied heavily, but they were unsaid.
"Yes." Dapplestar sat on her haunches. "We must burn them to the ground, just like we did with ShadowClan."
Icepaw nodded.
"Recall Moonshade and Shimmerwing back here," Dapplestar ordered. "I must speak with them and a few other warriors."
"Yes, Dapplestar." Icepaw turned around and bounded away. Dapplestar watched her go, impressed by how much Icepaw had changed. There was no more of the boisterous apprentice that she had once seen – now, Icepaw obeyed Dapplestar the moment she gave her orders. She had snuck into enemy territory to spy on their Clans and had sown chaos within ThunderClan and WindClan on her own. She had even struck down ShadowClan survivors. She is a good warrior. I am proud of her.
When Dapplestar could hear muffled voices and shuffling pawsteps outside her den, she stretched her front paws and walked out. Her arrival made her warriors stop dead in their tracks, fixing their eyes on her. Dapplestar trotted into the center of the island, flicking her tail for silence. Shimmerwing's blue eyes focused on Dapplestar, their icy gaze unreadable. Runningflame's ginger-and-white tail twitched. The rest of the RiverClan warriors gathered around their senior warriors.
"We will burn WindClan to the ground," Dapplestar announced.
Frenzied murmurs spread through her Clan. Shimmerwing's eyes widened with horror, and Runningflame's claws unsheathed. Shellfall's face was unreadable, while Rippleheart nodded his head in agreement. Sharpfang's amber eyes glowed, and Moonshade pawed the ground, seemingly ready to return to his post. Her warriors seemed to be mixed between hesitation and determination. Perhaps they were hesitant because of the methods she was going to use to bring victory and determined to stop the wars.
"When we get there, we will kill them all," Dapplestar went on. "Even the kits and queens. Spare no one." Her massive tortoiseshell head swung to face Shimmerwing, whose face was twisted with torment. "Do you have anything to say, Shimmerwing?"
Shimmerwing's ears twitched. "We have ThunderClan allied with WindClan," she began. "They still have reinforcements on their side. How do we know that ThunderClan won't be there with WindClan when we attack?"
"Don't worry about that," Dapplestar growled, tired of her deputy seeming to grow weaker by the day. "You were just there, were you not? If ThunderClan was not there, they won't be there now. Since you and Moonshade have not been able to destroy WindClan, I will take matters into my own paws and destroy them, just as I did with ShadowClan."
"Dapplestar." Runningflame's deep voice was hard as the massive ginger-and-white tabby looked up to face his leader. Dapplestar let out a low growl in her throat. Runningflame never doubted her orders. Was he about to protest as well? "Please, reconsider. We don't need to burn every Clan to the ground to get them to obey us. Surely continuous attacks will work."
Dapplestar turned on Runningflame, her back arching. "Have you become a coward, Runningflame?" she snarled at him, seeing the slight tremble that shook the feral tom's burly figure. "Afraid of fighting, now? Have you become weak? You have listened to the council for the past moon. WindClan is crumbling, but they will not be defeated by attacks alone. They must be destroyed with a ruthless attack that will kill them all."
"Dapplestar…" Runningflame lowered himself to the ground. "Please! I beg of you, please do not burn WindClan to the ground!"
"How strange." Dapplestar tilted her head. "It sounds as if there is some reason you do not want the Clan destroyed. I do not recall you begging like a pathetic kit when I declared the same thing would be done to ShadowClan. Could it be that you have someone you care for in WindClan?"
Runningflame's lips pressed in a straight line. "I am not weak, Dapplestar, I assure you. I simply do not think it is frank to continue to destroy the territories of other Clans when we want to rule them."
"Silence," Dapplestar hissed at him. "Answer me. Do you have someone you care for in WindClan!"
Runningflame said nothing. Rage blinded Dapplestar's vision as she prowled over to the ginger-and-white tabby. "You fool!" In seconds, Dapplestar lashed her paw out at his cheek, a blow so powerful it sent the tom staggering. Gasps echoed through the Clan, and when Shimmerwing dropped into a crouch to try to help Runningflame, Dapplestar flicked her tail to order her to stay in her spot.
"Enough of this." Dapplestar curled her lip as Runningflame shakily pulled himself to his paws. "You are coming with me, Runningflame, and you will burn that Clan to the ground, and whoever you care for there. If you refuse to do so, I will have your head, and the heads of everyone you care for."
"Dapplestar, stop!" Shimmerwing pleaded.
"Silence," Dapplestar hissed, turning onto Shimmerwing. "Speak again, and you are next. We are going, and WindClan will be nothing but ashes once we are finished. Every able-bodied warrior, march with Rippleheart! Sharpfang, Tawnycloud, and Wolfheart, come with me. We will gather the fire."
Rippleheart's blue eyes darted from side to side. He lowered his head and nodded. "Yes, Dapplestar." With a gesture of his tail, he gathered the able-bodied warriors, and left the camp with them streaming behind him. Shimmerwing glanced over her shoulder, meeting Dapplestar's gaze, her eyes pleading. Dapplestar returned her stare, refusing to back down. This is the only way to bring peace to the Clans. When Dapplestar said nothing, Shimmerwing turned her head and followed Rippleheart.
"Right," Dapplestar said when they were gone. She turned to Wolfheart, Sharpfang, and Tawnycloud, who stood behind her, their faces dark. "Let's collect the fire."
Tawnycloud cleared her throat, hesitation in her blue eyes. "Dapplestar, I'm old. I'm the oldest cat in the Clan. I'm not sure I can fight another battle."
"Then this will be your last one," Dapplestar hissed at her. "If you don't let yourself get killed by some measly WindClan warriors, I will let you retire and live the rest of your days as an elder. But you will fight in this one. This is an order."
The golden she-cat lowered her head. "As you wish."
Sharpfang's amber eyes glowed with anticipation. "This will destroy WindClan!" he yowled in triumph.
"Exactly." Dapplestar nodded. She turned on her heels, leaving camp, her warriors behind her. Dapplestar navigated the marshland until she found the glade where the Twoleg fire usually burned. Much to her relief, it was alit, blazing onto the pot the Twolegs held. Her warriors grasped sticks in their jaws and headed over to the pot, lighting their sticks with the fire. Dapplestar scanned them all, satisfied with the amount of fire they had gathered. Dapplestar flicked her tail towards her warriors, feeling the heat from their fires nearly burning her back legs. She sprinted away, heading towards the WindClan border.
When Dapplestar approached the moorland, she could spot the line of RiverClan cats in the distance, their sleek pelts dotting the grassland as the sun hit its peak in the sky. Perfect. The tortoiseshell leader padded over to her cats, taking her position at the front of them. She could hear Shimmerwing's trembling breath from her side, and Runningflame's fear scent was rancid. Dapplestar flicked her tail towards her warriors that held the flaming sticks in their mouth. "Fire."
Sharpfang lunged forward, a malicious smile on his face as he held the stick in his mouth. As he darted further, his silver tabby figure disappearing, the sign that he had succeeded was the plumes of smoke emerging from the direction he had ran off to – straight towards their camp. Wolfheart took off towards the heartland of their territory, while Tawnycloud ran off towards closer to their border with ThunderClan.
"Leave no cat alive," Dapplestar ordered the RiverClan cats. "Attack! Head for their camp!"
Shimmerwing's breath was sharp in her chest, and Dapplestar whirled on her. "That means you too," she snarled at her, furious at the uncertainty in her deputy's former determined eyes. The she-cat nodded and looked at the warriors, bounding forward into the moorland.
When the RiverClan cats surged ahead at her orders, Dapplestar called towards Icepaw, who was about to join them. "Wait."
Icepaw turned over her shoulder. "Yes?"
"Make sure Runningflame attacks," Dapplestar hissed at her. "If he shows so much as a sliver of hesitation, I want to hear it. Understand?"
"Yes, Dapplestar." Icepaw nodded and bounded towards the direction of the WindClan camp. As the fire roared through the moorland, the crackling of the flames growing louder until it burned Dapplestar's eardrums, Dapplestar could hear cries of panic coming from the moorland. Orange-and-red flames ripped through the grassland, engulfing everything in its path. Dapplestar unsheathed her claws. She had one target: Scorchstar.
Just as Talonstar died by her claws, so would Scorchstar.
Dapplestar raced into the flames, towards the dip in the moorland that made WindClan's camp, spotting the chaos unfolding before her very eyes. Moonshade struck down thin, wiry cats as they raced for safety that was nowhere to be found. Sharpfang sank his teeth in a pale gray she-cat's neck and threw her into the raging flames. A panicked cry followed her demise, and then she was silent. More cats began to flee from WindClan's camp, but the RiverClan cats were on them faster than they could run.
In the midst of the confusion were two small cats, racing from the opposite direction of the fleeing WindClan cats. Where are they going? Bewildered, Dapplestar followed them, using the flames as cover. Even though the oppressive heat from the fire was singing Dapplestar's whiskers and making her face slick with sweat, Dapplestar had to know what these two cats were doing. As she chased them further, she recognized the two pelts. The silver tabby pelt was one of Mallowleaf, the WindClan medicine cat apprentice, and the other ginger-and-white tabby was Hawkfire, Scorchstar's daughter. This is too good.
Every cat in WindClan had to die, medicine cat or warrior. Dapplestar would let no cats survive. If any enemy survived, they would be an obstacle towards unification. The two cats raced away, and Dapplestar was hard on their heels, using the fire to conceal her from them. As Dapplestar peered closer, she realized that they weren't running together at all. Hawkfire was chasing after Mallowleaf. What are they doing?
Mallowleaf neared a patch of herbs that blossomed with colorful flowers, and she began to pick them off as rapidly as she could, desperation making her paws move quickly. Hawkfire stopped behind her, her green eyes blazing. "Mallowleaf! Get out! The entire moorland is on fire!"
"I have to get these herbs, Hawkfire!" Mallowleaf cried out. "Our Clanmates will die if they don't!" The silver tabby she-cat dropped the herbs in her mouth, coughing raggedly as she inhaled fumes of smoke.
Hawkfire trembled in fear. "I don't want you to die, Mallowleaf!" Just as the words left the WindClan warrior's mouth, a giant gust of wind billowed in their direction, taking with it a wall of flames that had raged from the other side of WindClan territory. Hawkfire let out a terrified howl, stepping back. "Mallowleaf! Run!"
Mallowleaf looked up, her blue eyes wide with horror as the flames rapidly engulfed the silver tabby she-cat. A frightened scream, a bloodcurdling scream from the ones of nightmares, of a cat who had seen death in front of her, erupted from the flames where the she-cat burned. Hawkfire let out a hysterical cry. "Mallowleaf! Mallowleaf!"
Dapplestar watched, her eyes round as Mallowleaf fell victim to the furious ginger flames. They devoured her, racing across the moorland, reaching for Hawkfire. The ginger-and-tabby she-cat fell to the ground. Dapplestar crouched down, snarling, unsheathing her claws. She didn't want Hawkfire to burn alive in the flames. No, she wanted Scorchstar's daughter to die by her own claws.
The RiverClan leader leaped over the flames, launching herself at the unconscious WindClan warrior. Just as she landed next to her, a ginger-and-white pelt appeared at the corner of her eye, jumping in front of Hawkfire and glaring at Dapplestar with a glare that could maul. Scorchstar.
Scorchstar's lip curled as he hissed at Dapplestar, baring his yellow-stained teeth. "Get away from my daughter."
"It looks like your other own perished," Dapplestar taunted him.
Scorchstar looked over his shoulder, his amber eyes wide. Dapplestar lunged at him, sending him to the ground. The two leaders wrestled with each other, their claws shredding skin, blood gushing from their wounds until they reached the heat of the fire. Realizing that both their lives were in danger, Dapplestar leaped back, putting distance between her and the fire.
The flames that blazed on all sides of the two leaders seemed pale in comparison to the anger that burned between them. Scorchstar's amber gaze was intense as the heat. "Dapplestar, we must settle this conflict once and for all!" he roared, his voice hoarse from the smoke. "WindClan never wanted to be a pawn in your games, but now that you've burned our territory, we have no choice! I thought your goal was to unify the Clans. You've succeeded – the Clans are all unified by a pointless war that you started!"
Dapplestar arched an eye whisker. "You adle-brained fool."
"Talonstar died fighting you," Scorchstar went on. "You destroyed his Clan, and you turned on ThunderClan, your only ally. You have burned the forest and have ruined our homes for future generations. You allied with a traitorous murderer and his band of rogues, who put terror into every heart and nearly succeeded in dismantling all of the Clans! Aren't you finished yet? Aren't you happy? Must you kill every cat by the lake to satisfy your endless lust for our blood?"
"You old fool," Dapplestar snarled at him. "You think honor and justice will unite this land? You think your gods can help you? You think you're better than me? You are a bigger fool than I ever was. Instead of expanding your power, you wasted your best years fighting with the other Clans. Had you half of my ambition and foresight, you could have united this land. But honor, justice and traditions weighed you down. Now you are just an old fool, listening to the words of a dead cat. If you won, you would die, before you could even cover the ground I have. You want to judge me for burning your territory? You refused to submit to me. The cats I killed murdered my warriors, cut my supply lines and refused to be controlled. Everything I have done has been for the good of the land. To hell with your traditions, to hell with your honor, to hell with your pride and to hell with the gods! The other Clans use the same power as me and vilify me for doing it better. I shall leave you in the past and embrace the future!"
Scorchstar gawked at her, his amber eyes wide with horror as he took in Dapplestar's words. Dapplestar turned to look at Hawkfire, who was rising from her trance. "Say goodbye to your daughter, Scorchstar."
"No!" Scorchstar howled. He swung on Dapplestar, fury lighting his amber eyes as he slashed his paw vigorously against Dapplestar's cheek. The force from the blow was so powerful that Dapplestar staggered back, reeling as her head spun. She watched as Scorchstar pelted away into the flames. A grin broke on Dapplestar's face. Even if Scorchstar ran away, her cats would get him. Even if he wasn't killed by her warriors, Dapplestar could tell by the blood gushing down his pelt and the burns staining his fur that he was severely injured and would succumb to his wounds or smoke inhalation. He's a dead cat either way.
There was no doubting the fact that WindClan was burning to the ground. Dapplestar pulled herself to her paws and padded away from the sight of Mallowleaf's death. As she walked through the burnt moorland, corpses blocked her path at every turn. Dapplestar turned her head as the flames that engulfed the moorland began to dwindle down. The RiverClan leader leaped over the corpses and the cinders and traveled to the WindClan camp. As she looked down in the hollow in the moor, she could not help but let a chuckle escape her.
It was damaged. There was no cat left. The dens were reduced to rubble, the tree that overhung the leader's den had splintered and fallen to the ground. Even the fresh-kill was burned to a pulp. The plants that grew on the moorland floor were dead. No cat would be able to inhabit this camp any longer. Dapplestar glanced around to see more dead cats blocking her path – young and old alike. Those are my enemies.
Her work was finished. WindClan was destroyed. Even if she didn't have a head to show RiverClan, she would get it, one way or another. If Scorchstar ever tried to come back, she would be waiting. Now, WindClan's territory was hers. She would do with it as she saw fit. ShadowClan was destroyed, and WindClan was conquered.
She was one step closer to conquering all of the Clans.
