"That's not how a warrior fights!"
Tanglepaw was thrown onto her back. She squinted up at the sun. It would have been a fine day if Brokenshadow hadn't been beating her silly.
She had scrambled to roll back onto her paws, but Brokenshadow was quicker. He jumped onto his apprentice, and pushed her down with both paws on her shoulder. Due to his size advantage, it was all Tanglepaw could do to wriggle underneath him.
Brokenshadow leaned down. She could feel his hot, rotten breath on her nose. "Do you understand now? This is why I couldn't let you become a warrior."
"No, you didn't let me become a warrior because seeing others in misery gives you a power trip," Tanglepaw struggled to say as she tried to squirm away from the deputy's retched breath.
Brokenshadow laughed. "You keep telling yourself that. I'm ambitious, that's all."
Tanglepaw took advantage of Brokenshadow being distracted. She used all of her strength to push up and throw the tomcat off balance. Surprisingly, he lost his footing and fell to the ground.
Tanglepaw puffed up her chest, trying to look more fearsome. "Ambition doesn't equate an abuse of power." She leaned forward onto her front paws, preparing to attack her mentor.
Brokenshadow's tail lashed back and forth, the black tip quivering slightly. With a quick yowl, he leaped straight at Tanglepaw. She jumped out of the way, but he clipped her side with his claws.
"Naive little kit!" he cried
Tanglepaw made the first move. She quickly latched onto Brokenshadow's neck and furiously clawed his side and part of his underbelly with her back legs. He began to drop into a roll, but Tanglepaw leaped off. Brokenshadow immediately grabbed the apprentice by the scruff of her neck and began to shake her. She mewed in pain but was unable to get any footing on the ground since she was so small.
"Brokenshadow, enough."
Tanglepaw was suddenly relieved of the pain in her neck. She slumped to the ground, and it took all of her strength to glance up. She caught sight of cream-colored fur.
"I was just trying to teach her how to defend herself," she heard Brokenshadow say.
"There is no need for that. I don't want to see you treating an apprentice in such a way again, or I'll have to revoke your mentorship. I came out here to see just how 'unready' Tanglepaw was, and I am absolutely disgusted at what I just witnessed."
"Yes, Fallenstar."
Fallenstar walked over to Tanglepaw. He leaned down and whispered in her ear. "Tanglepaw, I believe that I owe you a warrior ceremony next moon."
Tanglepaw didn't respond. Instead, she closed her eyes.
Ambition doesn't equate an abuse of power.
He deserves to die, Tanglepaw had thought as she drifted into the warm, soft dream that was unconsciousness.
Tanglepaw could easily remember finding Brokenshadow's body. She knew that it probably made her look more suspicious than the others that were accused, but what was she to do? Leave his body in the medicine cat den without telling any of the ShadowClan warriors that their beloved deputy was dead?
Maybe she was just bitter.
She honestly wasn't that worried about being convicted. She knew that Fallenstar favored her.
Tanglepaw's train of thoughts broke when she felt a paw nudge her side. She swiveled around, hissing. Dawnpaw squeaked as she jumped away from her friend.
"I was, uh, just coming to tell you that I heard Fallenstar talking to Quietwind and Whispersecrets. They're going to interrogate us. They said they would do it to you first. What does that word mean, 'interrogate'?"
Tanglepaw felt her heartbeat quicken, but she tried not to display any emotion. "It means that they're going to question us. See what we know."
Dawnpaw didn't respond to that. She lay down next to Tanglepaw. "You know, I think that Frozenleaf killed him. She always has seemed like a sketchy type of warrior, and, of course, there's the fact that she wanted kits. I almost wanted to warn her, you know, considering the situation I was put in..."
Tanglepaw ignored her fellow apprentice. She already knew what questions she would be asked. She just wasn't sure how to answer them.
"Get up, apprentice. You're coming with me." Whispersecrets abruptly put her head under Tanglepaw's belly and pushed up. Tanglepaw scrambled to her feet.
"Okay, okay! Geez. Didn't even give me a chance to get up," Tanglepaw snapped.
Whispersecrets cuffed Tanglepaw's ear. "Watch your mouth. Our leader might take back-talk, but I don't."
Tanglepaw said nothing. She let the muscular tabby she-cat lead her out of the bottom of the cave and up to the higher level, at the top. Fallenstar was waiting in there for her.
Whispersecrets shoved Tanglepaw in and immediately stood in a way that blocked the exit. Tanglepaw sat down in a huff.
"Good evening, Tanglepaw," Fallenstar said. "I trust you're getting along with the other accused nicely."
"Sure thing. It isn't like I have a grudge against any of them. I'm not Dawnpaw or Frozenleaf," Tanglepaw muttered. She heard Whispersecrets growl a warning.
"Okay. Well, I've brought you in here today to ask you a few questions. Lay down or something. You might as well make yourself comfortable. You may or may not be here for a while."
Tanglepaw took her leader's advice. She settled down in the exact spot she had been standing in.
Fallenstar stood up and slowly began to walk over to Tanglepaw. "Here is the first and most important question. Remember, I most likely know the answers to most of these questions already. Whether I decide if you're guilty or not depends on how you answer me. I am also not going to make any decisions until I have spoken to all of the suspected warriors. Understood?"
Tanglepaw fought not to shiver. "I understand, Fallenstar."
"Answer carefully," he responded. "Now, how would you describe your relationship with the deceased?"
Tanglepaw considered this. "Cold. Distant."
"Hmm." He circled around the black she-cat. "Was he a good mentor to you?"
"In...some ways."
"How was he a good mentor?"
"He pushed me to try harder."
Fallenstar chuckled. "I knew you would be the hardest one to talk to. Never saying any more than I asked. How was he a bad mentor?"
"He pushed me too hard."
Fallenstar nodded. "How ironic. I remember a day not too long ago where it seemed that he had been training you a little too roughly. In fact, I would even say he was on the brink of killing you. I only saw part of that fight, though. While I believe that what he did was unacceptable under any circumstance, why did he do that? Did you provoke him?"
Tanglepaw sat stonily still.
"Answer Fallenstar," Whispersecrets snapped.
"I...may have provoked him somewhat," Tanglepaw said.
"Oh? How so?"
"I told him that ambition doesn't equate an abuse of power."
Fallenstar and Whispersecrets exchanged knowing glances. "That's a bit strange," Whispersecrets chided. Tanglepaw had never heard her sound so...calm.
"I have one last question for you, Tanglepaw. Answer carefully," Fallenstar warned. "While Brokenshadow was in Spiritbloom's den, we had told the Clan not to go into the medicine cat den. It was fairly obvious that while Brokenshadow was in there alone, Spiritbloom was treating other warriors with worse wounds. Yet, it seemed that you had gone in there anyways. You came back out and told me that you found our deputy dead. Why did you go into the medicine cat den, knowing that we had forbade it for a time?"
Tanglepaw stared Fallenstar straight in the eye. She didn't answer.
"Answer carefully," he repeated.
Tanglepaw shook her head. "I can't answer you."
Fallenstar's eyes flashed. "Don't be silly, Tanglepaw. You will answer me." That seemed to be Whispersecrets' cue to stand up.
"I cannot. If you think you can beat it out of me, you're wrong."
The two stared each other down for a few more moments. Then, Fallenstar sighed. "Very well. You are a stubborn little thing. But I will be asking you this question again. Don't doubt it. Whispersecrets, take her back down to the prisoner's cave."
Whispersecrets looked irritated, but said, "Whatever you say, Fallenstar."
Tanglepaw felt relief as soon as she stepped foot back inside the bottom cave. She had delayed the inevitable, she knew. But it gave her time to think.
They couldn't know the true reason she had sneaked into the medicine cat den that day.
A/N: Oh, boy! This was my favorite chapter to write, and coming in at over 1,520 words, it is the longest! Now we're going to start seeing why the suspects act the way they do! I hope you all enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it! (Oh, and don't you wonder what the "situation" Dawnpaw was in was? Found out next chapter! ;) ) - vulplixzii325