I Fell In Love With My Apprentice 2: Mocking Jay

Chapter 4: The Disturbing Truth

A Poem by Moonfeather

Her eyes were shining

Green sparks burst into flame

Her pelt was quivering guilty

With lies, deceit and shame

She was gone all night

But she still tried to creep

Into the space beside me,

While I pretended to sleep

Lilypool yawned, eyes drooping with exhaustion. Beside her, Foxkit and Wolfkit were tumbling around, with an insane amount of energy. Lilypool grunted as a leg kicked her belly.

"Careful!" Lilypool said to both kits, not sure who jabbed her.

"Sorry," Foxkits tiny voice mumbled. Lilypool smiled through her yawns and gave him a loving pat on the head.

It was nearly time to wake up, the sun was just starting to peek through the trees and Lilypool could smell the crisp morning air. She tried not to scowl and smiled at her sons, wishing with all her heart for them to sleep. Foxkit had had a nightmare, and howled until Moonfeather tended to him. This led to Wolfkit waking up as well. Lilypool remembered angrily at how Moonfeather had woken her up to soothe the kits, saying that she was the mother and he needed to do other fatherly things. Then he vanished somewhere and Lilypool hadn't seen him since.

"Kits," Lilypool took a deep breathe, feeling very old and battered. Foxkit stopped pummeling Wolfkit to look up at his mother with wide awake eyes.

"It's time to rest," Lilypool said in a calming voice, gently patting a spot beside her. "Come and sleep so you'll be rested for the morning."

"But we're not tired," Wolfkit pointed out.

"I'm sure if you lie down you'll be asleep in no time," Lilypool said, voice stern. She patted the spot. "Now go to sleep."

Foxkit and Wolfkit exchanged a sad look and slumped down, making a big point of sighing loudly.

"Now close your eyes," Lilypool whispered, eyelids drooping shut. She took a deep breath of peaceful silence. "And go… to… sleep…"

Lilypool was relieved as the kits hearts started to slow down, and they curled up in the curve of her belly. She was half asleep within seconds, but just as she was about to nod off for good, she felt a paw wiggling.

There was a bit of shuffling around, and just as Lilypool began to ignore it, Foxkit exploded into the air.

"SHADOWCLAN IS ATTACKING!" he howled at the top of his lungs. At once, Wolfkit burst up and started to jump around, trying to catch his brother. Both the kits were shrieking with delight and crashing into every wall of the den.

Lilypool stared blankly at the roof of the den for half a second before shoving her tired bones into gear.

It was nice while it lasted, she thought to herself. Foxkit leaped onto Lilypools belly, smiling and playfully battering his tail on her.

Lilypool felt a rush of love for her sons and she nuzzled his head. Foxkit bit her ear with glee.

"We have to hide from Shadowclan!" Lilypool announced, wondering dimly if they had woken up the entire camp yet. Foxkit and Wolfkit cried with excitement that Lilypool was playing along, and they dived behind her.

"Stay very still," Lilypool pretended. "They might not hear us."

Foxkit and Wolfkit went deathly silent, the only noise they made was from their breathing. Lilypool waited a solid ten seconds before leaping into the air.

"THEY FOUND US!" she cried. "Everyone out, now!"

Foxkit and Wolfkit screamed and crashed out of the den, taking out a big chunk of the wall as they did so. Lilypool was just rearing to jump out after them when a disgusted face appeared in the entrance. Lilypool shrieked, completely surprised when she realized it was Talonstrike.

"Do you have any idea what time it is?" he hissed.

Lilypool was still paralyzed from the fact that he was actually talking to her. She shrugged her shoulders, hoping he'd stop scowling.

"It's barely sun high," Talonstrike continued. "And you've managed to wake every single cat in the camp. For Starclans sake, Lilypool! It's so early the dawn patrol isn't even assembled yet!"

"I'm sorry," Lilypool mumbled, embarrassed that he was treating her like a little kit.

"You have the entire nursery to play with them in," Talonstrike said. "That's plenty of room for them to run around."

Lilypool thought about the way Foxkit and Wolfkit were crashing around and struggled not to shoot back a retort. He seems to forget that they are growing very fast. They barely even fit in the nursery with me!

Talonstrike suddenly got a strange look on his face, as if he had realized he was upsetting her.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled. "I know you're doing your best. I'm just really grumpy when I'm tired."

"I'll try to keep them at a dull roar," Lilypool joked. Talonstrikes whiskers twitched, as if he was holding back a laugh.

"See you later," he said, then turned away and walked back to the warriors den. Lilypool nearly died from anxiety. He actually talked to me! After all these moons, we finally had a conversation!

"What are you doing?" Foxkit demanded, stomping over to Lilypool. "You can't just pretend to be running away from Shadowclan and then just sit there with your eyes glazed over."

"Sorry, I was talking to Talonstrike," Lilypool said, feeling bad for abandoning their game. "He was telling me that we were being too loud."

"Aw," Wolfkit mumbled. "But we were having so much fun."

"You should have asked him to join in!" Foxkit cried.

"I don't think he would have wanted too," Lilypool explained. "He looked pretty tired."

"Can we go wake up Jaystorm?" Foxkit asked. Lilypool nearly choked on her tongue. "What?" she stammered. "Why Jaystorm?"

"Because he always plays with us," Wolfkit explained. "We play this really fun game where he pretends to be a rock and we jump on him until he falls over."

Lilypool felt very anxious, her paws clammy. I haven't talked to him since that one night so many moons ago. I had no idea he played with my kits.

Our kits

"Jaystorm is like, the coolest cat ever," Foxkit said. "He told me if I continue to have yellow fur, I'll pick up a mate in no time."

Lilypool wanted to smile hugely and roll her eyes and hiss at the same time. Figures he'd say that, since Foxkits pelt is the exact same color as his.

"You can't just go changing the color of your fur anyway," Lilypool said, staring at a small rock on the dirt floor. "And you shouldn't be thinking of mates until you're way older."

"Moonfeather says we should wait until we're senior warriors," Wolfkit explained to his brother.

"Good," Lilypool mumbled, sidetracked as she thought of her mate.

Where is he, anyway?

"So where are these berries that Rainsong told you to find?" Jaystorm asked, looking around in the gloom. All he could see was rotten undergrowth and overgrown ferns. Beside him, Moonfeather tensed up.

"They should be coming up soon," he said curtly, not meeting Jaystorms eyes.

"Uh, okay," Jaystorm said, turning to look around again. He wondered for the millionth time why Moonfeather had chosen him for this expedition. We're not friends at all, so why didn't he pick someone else?

"So how are things going with you and Lilypool?" Jaystorm asked, trying to make conversation.

Moonfeather just grunted. Jaystorm sighed and gave up.

"I see some orange berries over here," Jaystorm said suddenly. "You said they were orange, right?"

"I think so," Moonfeather said.

"What do you mean, you think so?" Jaystorm cried. "This is important stuff! We don't want to accidentally bring back any death berries."

"I think we got the right bush," Moonfeather said after examining a wilted berry with a paw. "These look great."

"Alright," Jaystorm said. He began scooping pawfuls of the orange berries onto the ground.

"So," Moonfeather said slowly. "You sound like quite the busy guy. Four kits, that's a lot of responsibility."

"Yeah, well, it's easier now that they're older," Jaystorm said, wondering why he was bringing this up. He was starting to get a weird feeling crawling around the edge of his belly.

"Thinking of having any more?" Moonfeather asked, staring him square in the eye. Jaystorm shuffled the berries off the branch faster, not looking up. I have a bad feeling where this is going.

"Probably not," he said at last.

"I see," Moonfeather replied.

"I'm done," Jaystorm said, patting all his berries into a pile. "We can go back now."

"My kits with Lilypool, it's the funniest story," Moonfeather said dryly, making no effort to get up.

"I don't really need to hear about your personal business," Jaystorm was starting to panic, knowing exactly where Moonfeather was going with this.

How does he know?

"I want you to hear it," Moonfeather hissed. Jaystorm stared at him, wondering what he was going to say.

"Lilypool got pregnant," Moonfeather said. "That's the funny part about the whole thing."

Now Jaystorm was confused. How in any way is that funny?

"She got pregnant," Moonfeather repeated. "And we never mated. Do you have anything you'd like to say?"

"Define… mating," Jaystorm stalled. Moonfeather hissed and smacked the pile of orange berries hard with a paw.

"I know you're the father," Moonfeather whispered. "I've known this whole time."

Jaystorm didn't know what to say. He wanted to apologize, but the words wouldn't come out.

"I'm sorry," he finally choked out. "It happened because I-"

"I don't want to hear your shitty excuses," Moonfeather swore. He glared with hatred at Jaystorm.

"I'm sorry," Jaystorm said quietly. "We never meant to hurt you."

"Then prove you're sorry," Moonfeather said slowly. He pushed the berries towards Jaystorm. "Go on," he said, face twitching slightly. "Eat up."

Jaystorm leaned down and sniffed the berries, getting very suspicious. After a long look at them, he came to the conclusion that they were poisonous.

"I'm not going to eat death berries," Jaystorm said at last. "That's pretty harsh."

"They aren't death berries, you blithering fool," Moonfeather spat. "Death berries are as red as blood. These, I like to call torture-berries."

"Torture-berries?" Jaystorm yelped. "Why would you call them that?"

"Because their juices are clear," Moonfeather whispered. "No one would ever know if I squirted one or two or six onto their fresh kill."

Jaystorm was at a loss for words. He's gone completely mad.

"So once you eat the fresh kill, soaked in this clear, tasteless juice," Moonfeather continued. "You will become very ill. So ill in fact, that you end up dying a moon later."

"You're crazy," Jaystorm snapped, standing up. "I don't need to listen to this. You won't kill me, you're just mad I get more action with your mate than you do."

"I'm not CRAZY!" Moonfeather stood up, trembling. His voice echoed off the trees.

"You just threatened to kill me with a slow killing berry," Jaystorm hissed. "That screams crazy in that one sentence."

"It wasn't so crazy when it killed Darkclaw."

Jaystorm stopped dead.

"What, did you say?" he whispered, turning around slowly. He stared at Moonfeathers bloodshot eyes.

"I killed him," Moonfeather repeated. "I killed him with these berries. And you think I'm crazy, how silly!"

The disturbed way in which Moonfeather spoke made eyes twitch as though he had a bug in them.

"You killed my best friend," Jaystorm repeated. "Darkclaws death… was caused by YOU?"

"Guilty!" Moonfeather chuckled darkly, and stared at him.

"You're sick," Jaystorm gulped, getting very frightened. He started to back up, preparing to run away.

"Maybe so," Moonfeather sighed. "But not as sick as you're going to be when you eat these."

"You fucking idiot, I'm not going to eat them!" Jaystorm hissed.

"Okay," Moonfeather shrugged. "I guess I'll just have to mix them in with Lilypools next meal."

Jaystorms blood ran cold again, and he stared at the deranged cat in front of him. "You wouldn't," he started.

"Watch me," Moonfeather smiled. "And after I'm done with her, I'll give some to Foxkit and Wolfkit. I'll tell them it's a magical treat or something. They'll eat loads of them!"

"Are you insane?" Jaystorm choked. "You'd poison your own kits?"

"They aren't my kits," Moonfeather hissed. "They're yours."

They stood staring at each other for several heartbeats before Moonfeathers spoke again.

"You brought those kits into the world so effortlessly with my mate," Moonfeather said, spearing a orange berry with a claw. "And I can take them away just as easily."

"How do I know you're not going to kill them after I eat the berries?" Jaystorm whispered at last.

"You'll never know," Moonfeather shrugged. "You'll be dead. The choice is yours. Die now, or watch everything you love die first."

Jaystorm was feeling very scared. He couldn't speak.

Moonfeather placed his speared berry on the ground in front of Jaystorm.

"The choice is yours."