CHAPPIE 39. Direct continuation of the last one, I just liked that last sentence so much that I couldn't keep writing. Don't worry, you'll know what happens.
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Brightpool's rounded shape stood out against the snowfall a few fox-lengths ahead, her bright ginger pelt shining like a beacon of light in the storm. Icefang herself was impossible to make out between the gray-green pines, even her ice blue eyes obscured by swirling flakes of ice. Her pawprints had been mercifully erased by the growing storm, her breathing muffled by the whistling of the wind. No cat would see or smell her until she was right on top of them. Surely StarClan was on her side.
Heart pounding wildly, Icefang advanced through the snow, stepping closer and closer to the ThunderClan deputy, her eyes watching carefully as Brightpool snuffled at the base of a shrub, her tail waving in the air. It appeared as though she'd discovered a piece of prey, maybe a mouse or a shrew taking shelter within the leaves of the shrub. Rather than leaving it for the apprentices, who were no doubt struggling in the storm, Brightpool was trying to flush the creature out of its hiding place. Her rear end was wriggling in the air, her attention totally focused on her prey.
It was impossible to resist a little fun, especially under the circumstances, so Icefang crept closer still, until she was crouching directly in the open, not three tail-lengths behind Brightpool. Though she felt hideously exposed in the center of a small clearing, Icefang knew that she would be more visible closer to the trees, where the snow fell less thickly. Here, not even a passing eagle would recognize her slender form against the whiteness.
"Brightpool!" she called, her voice low and soft, though loud enough to carry over the wind. At first the deputy didn't seem to notice. Icefang tried again. "Brightpool!" she called a little louder.
This time the she-cat leapt to attention, abandoning the prey and whipping around to face the voice. Of course, all she was white, above and below, and to each side. Icefang was hidden behind a snow drift, though in regular conditions she would still be easy to find.
"Brightpool, what have you done?" Icefang meowed, disguising her voice by giving it a musical quality completely uncharacteristic of her own speech. Brightpool would have to be extraordinarily keen to recognize the tone, which she obviously wasn't.
"Who's there?" squeaked ginger tabby, dancing in circles, peering into the forest on all sides. "What do you want?"
"We expected more from you, Brightpool," Icefang continued. She wanted the she-cat to feel sorry, to realize that she had very nearly led her Clan to destruction. Without proper authority, a Clan could not function. Brightpool should have known.
"Are you StarClan?" Brightpool whimpered, cringing against the snow. "Why have you come to me?"
"You swore an oath, Brightpool," Icefang growled, letting some of her own anger flow through her masked voice.
"I did! I did, I swore! I swore the oath!" Brightpool meowed, nodding vigorously. "I haven't gone back on my word. What do you want? What's going on?"
Icefang was starting to lose interest in the theatrics, her paws itching for action, but she would carry out the drama until it lost its effect. Plus, the snow was beginning to let up slightly. By this time it didn't matter, but Icefang wanted to get a move on in case it gave out all together.
"StarClan sees much, Brightpool. We have seen what has become of ThunderClan. Once great, and you have led your Clan to ruin."
"No!" Brightpool protested, her voice pitching higher as fear crossed her face. "No, not ruin! It's leafbare, times are hard, Cinderstar is dying, I've done everything I can."
"You lie," Icefang hissed, dropping the accent. As soon as the words escaped her lips, Icefang saw that Brightpool had recognized her voice.
"Icefang!" she gasped, a mixture of pure fury and wild panic. "What in the name of…"
Icefang crept out from behind the snowdrift. Her pelt was still practically invisible against the background of white, but her eyes stood out now, glowing orbs amidst the fog. She padded closer to Brightpool, relishing the terror that flickered across the she-cat's face as she stumbled back a few steps, her chest rising and falling rapidly as she glanced from side to side, searching for an escape.
"You never deserved the title of deputy," Icefang spat. She was only a few mouse lengths away now, and clearly visible. Still, the snow gave her pelt an eerie effect, and because the sun was behind the clouds, no shadow preceded her as she stalked toward Brightpool.
The deputy seemed to have gather her wits some, though she still looked like she might vomit. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be tracking Redpaw?" growled Brightpool, probably trying to distract Icefang so she could make an escape.
"And what about Eaglepaw? Or was that mouse for her," Icefang spat, waving her tail in the direction of the shrub. Brightpool's eyes flickered towards it for a moment, then back to Icefang. She kept her mouth shut, but her whiskers were quivering.
"I'm sure you know what it is I want," Icefang hissed, striding in a circle around Brightpool, who watched her carefully as she walked.
"No, I don't," she she-cat replied slowly, her eyes narrowing slightly. "I can't even begin to imagine."
"I can't let you drag ThunderClan down with you," Icefang explained, her words separate and distinct as if she was speaking to a newborn kit.
"And I suppose you think you're the one to save the Clan," Brightpool sneered, whipping around to face her again. "You're just a sniveling kittypet."
Icefang had been planning on drawing the whole affair out a little longer, just for the satisfaction. Now of course, it just wouldn't do. The sooner Brightpool's mouth was shut for good, the better.
"I took you in," Brightpool hissed as Icefang froze in mid step and took a deep breath. "I brought you to Cinderstar. I'm the only reason you're a warrior now, instead of rotting away in that Twoleg nest like the fat coward that you are."
Too far, Icefang trilled in her mind. Too far, too far; like a nursery song. She lunged.
For all her talk, Brightpool hadn't been expecting this, and she barely managed to scramble out of the way as Icefang soared past. Still, the white she-cat reached out her claws and snagged Brightpool's side, feeling the satisfying rip of flesh. Brightpool howled, stumbling sideways, as fat drops of scarlet blood fell from a gash in her flank.
"You're a murderer," Brightpool gasped, her eyes bright. "And you think you can be deputy! StarClan will never allow it."
"StarClan is on my side," Icefang growled with pride, feeling the cold wind whipping against her shoulders.
"They will never present you with the nine lives," she said forcefully, wincing as a few flakes of snow landed in her open wounded. "Never."
"You have no idea what StarClan wills," Icefang growled. "I can make ThunderClan great. More magnificent then it has ever been before!" Her heart was pounding in her ears, drowning out all sound save for her heavy breathing and Brightpool's wheezing reply.
"At what cost?" she hissed.
Icefang crouched down, tensing her muscles for another spring. Brightpool mirrored her, but she was favoring her left side now, unbalanced. The she-cat was chubby and out of practice, and easy win.
"You don't have any idea what I've done to get where I am now," Icefang meowed, narrowing her eyes as she prepared to jump. "And still StarClan is with me, at every pawstep."
"Impossible," Brightpool breathed,
blinking.
Icefang leapt, landing squarely on Brightpool's
shoulders. The older warrior was tossed backwards, but she did kick
Icefang in the stomach before sprawling in the snow. Coughing,
Icefang backed away, swallowing the bile that rose in her throat and
sucking down huge gulps of air.
"It wasn't a RiverClan warrior who killed Oakshadow," Icefang growled. She felt an odd sense of warmth as she confessed her terrible deeds to Brightpool, who was picking herself up off the ground slowly, carefully.
At this the she-cat glanced up at her, shock flashing in her gaze. "You?" she whispered. "How?"
"Like this," Icefang growled. She streaked across the snow, ignoring the ache in her stomach as she ran, and collided with Brightpool chest first, standing up on her hind legs and cuffing the she-cat in the side of the head like a boxing hare, first one way and then the other. Brightpool scrabbled uselessly against her, teetering from side to side as Icefang continued to punch her and claw at her face. Finally, she broke away, dashing to a good distance to allow Brightpool to recover again.
"You killed Oakshadow?" Brightpool meowed in despair, now bleeding from a myriad of small scratches on her face and shoulders. A long gash had opened in her forehead, dripping hot blood into her right eye. She hissed in pain and rubbed her face in the snow, leaving red smears on the ice.
"No," Icefang shook her head. "I dropped him." She allowed herself a wide grin, exposing long fangs that were as yet as white as the snow. "Oopsy." Her tail lashed.
Brightpool stared at her for a long time, and then finally she seemed decide between primal dread and raging wrath. "I've known Oakshadow since I was born," she howled, baring her teeth. "He was the bravest kind of warrior, and kind besides. He would have made a better leader than either of us, and you killed him!" She was close to shrieking now, which made Icefang's pelt prickle. If anyone heard, her entire scheme would be thrown awry. The wind was still whirling loudly, but the storm seemed to have faded, and the silence was suddenly deafening.
"Not technically, no," Icefang mewed, trying to keep the nervous waver out of her voice. Brightpool she could handle, but if any other warriors became involved, she wasn't sure she could hold her own. Plus, she didn't want to send her entire Clan to the hereafter just a few moons before becoming leader herself.
"You're a lunatic, that's what you are," Brightpool babbled, her tone of voice becoming more and more panicked, the anger finally giving way to pure fear. "Something is wrong with you, I knew it since the moment we met and here I am waiting for you to kill me when I never should have introduced you to ThunderClan in the first place."
This stung, and Icefang almost felt a little bit disappointed in Brightpool. "But that's the one thing I'm grateful for," she meowed, stepping forward until she was practically face to face with the wounded she-cat. Aside from the bruise on her stomach, Icefang was unhurt, her pelt still pristinely white, though her paws were speckled red and her claws were stained. "And I still have to thank you for it."
"Don't you dare," Brightpool spat, her pupils wide. "Don't come any closer. You're a freak of nature, a monster. That's what you are Icefang, a monster. A cold-hearted monster."He
Icefang pretended to ignore her, still padding slowly closer, her eyes on Brightpool's face. However, the words had penetrated her shell, somehow wormed their way through the ice and into that cold place within her chest that had been empty for some time. She felt heavy, weighed down, like she was being crushed under a torrent of water and at any minute she would be pulled the surface and never come back up.
Her face twisted in a grimace, Icefang stopped and blinked at Brightpool. Her head was a swirling pool of confused thoughts, and she only just managed to pick up one thread and follow it, clutching at some explanation. "I love ThunderClan," she said hoarsely, her unsheathed claws digging into the ice. "It's part of me, like nothing else. I would give my life for it, spill my blood for it, lose my soul for it. I need ThunderClan. If I lost it, I would die," Icefang finished simply. With a flash of pain she realized the absolute truth of this statement. Without ThunderClan, she was nothing, a kittypet without a code, a warrior with nothing to fight for. Icefang needed something to fight for.
"You aren't saving ThunderClan by murdering me," Brightpool said softly, though the fear in her voice made it shrill even at a murmur.
"I don't know that," Icefang said, frowning. "I don't know. I think I am. Or, I was. But it's all I have left, don't you see? I've never lied to my Clan."
Brightpool snorted. "I find that hard to believe. Oakshadow is dead and you're still striding around you like the own the place. You didn't tell them you killed him, did you?"
"Not in so many words. I was never asked," Icefang defended herself. "That isn't the point."
"Isn't it," Brightpool muttered. Her paws were shaking.
"Oakshadow was weak!" Icefang growled, heat flooding her face. "He didn't deserve to lead the Clan. He didn't understand what it meant to be a warrior. Only I can truly understand. Only me."
"Why, because you're a kittypet? Is that why?" Brightpool jeered, her eyes flashing. "The kittypet who became the one true warrior. You can try to justify this to yourself, but in truth you know it's sick. You're alone, Icefang. I don't know why Stonepelt is padding after you, but he just as mouse brained as you are. And I feel sad that you believe you're doing the right thing."
Icefang's face contorted once more, her whiskers quivering. "I said you don't understand," she meowed. "And Stonepelt is nothing to me, he's just a prop-"
"You're lying to yourself!" Brightpool cried suddenly cackling. "I can't believe this! You think you're some sort of hero, killing off the rest of the competition so you're the only one left whose good enough? There were better cats before you, you disgusting excuse for a warrior," Brightpool spat. She was getting worked up now, frenzied.
"No-" Icefang growled, trying to finish. But Brightpool could not be stopped.
"The kittypet warrior who saved ThunderClan! As if! You have no friends, Icefang. You are one small kit in a world that you know nothing of, just a single meager string in a spider's web! You think you can rule the forest, the cat who nothing and then became everything. Well this forest is not to be controlled, Icefang. Only true warriors can know this. This forest is ancient, and ancient forces oversee its future. You can't change this.
"Cinderstar may name you deputy, but you will never be a leader. StarClan will never accept you, and then what will you be? What will you be then Icefang?" Brightpool snarled, her eyes wild.
"Be quiet," Icefang hissed coldly, her voice carrying a deadly significance. "Be quiet Brightpool."
"Then you'll truly be nothing. You'll be a fake. And what will ThunderClan think then?"
It was too late as soon as Icefang had spoken, and she had barely heard the rest of Brightpool's words. With a cold and silent precision, the white she-cat coiled and lunged, exploding from the snow with a flurry of white. She caught Brightpool's next between her paws and dragged the she-cat down into the snow. Caught by surprise, Brightpool could do nothing but scream as Icefang plunged her face into the ice, smothering her. With a last hiss of triumph, Icefang drew a long and wickedly curved claw through the fur at Brightpool's neck. Almost instantly, a gush of warm blood spilled forth, steaming as it swirled into the snow, creating a melted hole were it eventually seeped into the ground, leaving behind a mottled scarlet stain.
"I warned you," Brightpool coughed, swallowing, prompting a fresh torrent of blood. "And I'll warn StarClan too."
At these last few words, Icefang felt a horrible pain in the depths of her gut. She hadn't thought about this, not since the very beginning. She had never truly believed that her warrior ancestors were watching over her, although it had been nice sometimes to tell herself that they were supporting her. But the fact that Tanglethorn, Oakshadow, and now Brightpool all blamed her for their deaths – could they change the outcome of her carefully planned future? Could they really sway StarClan's decision to make her a leader when the time came?
"Icefang?"
No.
"Icefang!?"
No. Please, no. Not now.
A terrified, blood-chilling shriek. "Icefang!"
"Redpaw," she murmured, feeling the emptiness inside her give a lurch.
She turned to see the red-furred apprentice standing between the trees, blazing against the snow. Slowly, so slowly, Redpaw took a few steps closer, her eyes as wide as twin suns, staring at the bloody mess at Icefang's paws.
"Redpaw, it isn't what you think," Icefang began, willing herself not to look at the ginger corpse as she stepped daintily over it and began to walk hesitantly toward her apprentice.
Redpaw glanced up at her as Icefang approached, her expression shocked. Icefang couldn't see if she was scared or angry, but she feared the worst. This is what she had been hoping to avoid, the risk that she had dared to take when making her final plans. But of course something like this would happen. Icefang knew that the path she had chosen would have its challenges, and this was clearly one of them.
"That's Brightpool," Redpaw stated matter-of-factly, her gaze still blank, staring.
"Yes," Icefang mewed cautiously, watching the young she-cat's face anxiously. If there was anyone that she didn't want discovering her misdeeds, it was Redpaw. When the apprentice was older, certainly, she would have to know, but not now. And not like this. If she had ever truly cared about anyone, she cared about Redpaw, and wanted, somewhere deep down inside, to shield her like a mother would her kit. It was a ridiculous notion, but Icefang knew the feelings to be true.
"She's dead," Redpaw pointed out once again, cocking her head. Still no signs of emotion, but Icefang could tell that her mind was working furiously behind the blank mask.
"Yes," Icefang meowed again, coming to stand a few mouse lengths away, watching.
"You killed her." Still no questions, only statements of fact. In some sick way, Icefang was proud. Redpaw was reacting far better than she could have.
"You'll understand when you're older," Icefang said, unable to think of anything better to say.
Now Redpaw finally showed a flicker of feelings behind her eyes, a flash of fire. "I understand more than you think. Tell me why you killed Brightpool, and then I'll tell you if I'm going to expose you as a murderer."
This was a side of Redpaw that Icefang had never seen, but she felt a blossom of warmth in her chest as she recognized the velvet voice, the stone-faced expression, the sharp eyes, watching her every move. This was a Redpaw that Icefang could relate to, could teach, and could maybe even love.
"I killed Brightpool," she meowed, adopting the same velveteen murmur and calculating gaze, "because I would make a better deputy, and she was lazy."
Redpaw glanced thoughtfully at Brightpool's prone form, still outlined in dull red.
"She was lazy," mewed the she-cat after a moment, her ears flickering back and forth.
Icefang stood there, waiting, watching. Either Redpaw would spit at her feet, run back to camp, and Icefang would be exiled or worse, or this was the beginning of a magnificent friendship that would last until the end of time, through the best and worst, like one soul split into two bodies.
With a sudden snarl, Redpaw turned and spit forcefully at Icefang's feet. The white warrior felt a sinking feeling that threatened to topple her onto the snow. She had hoped, for the smallest of seconds…
"That's for tricking me into a stupid contest instead of brining me along," Redpaw growled. Then she grinned. "But now I'll be apprentice to the deputy, right?"
Icefang was soaring, her moment of utter despair forgotten just as quickly as it come.
"We'll see," she trilled, feeling the sudden and very unusual urge to bounce in a circle, throwing all dignity to the wind in celebration of her first true friend.
"First we ought to cover up this mess," Redpaw mewed objectively, eyeing the ginger cadaver. "And wash the blood of your paws."
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Yayyyyyy Redpaw is a sick monster too!!! Hip hip hooray! That was definitely one of my favorite chapters ever, even if it was pretty gory. Sorry bout that. Icefang is so unbelievably evil I just want to hug her. But it's only because she's thoroughly misunderstood. Redpaw, on the other hand… she's just a psychopath. :D