Hello, my beautiful readers~ I love you all so much! I'm sorry if I ever get you guys mixed up with one another, I don't know why I do, but I do… anyways!
Some of yall's guessing in the comments is so right, it makes me wonder if I'm the only one without a mind-reading ability…
*and I love you all too much to hit you guys with shoes… most of the time*
Anyways, (again) enjoy! I'm sorry I'm not updating everyday like I used to, but it all depends on how much energy, motivation, and reviews I have
N'Joy!
Emberwing was panting when she awoke. Her stomach was still convulsing from the long-gone pains, but thankfully her new denmates were still all snoring into their nests. Her mind was racing. Sure, she knew the Darkforest wasn't the nicest of places to learn and sharpen her battle skills, and that it was a place for purely evil cats, but it had never really struck her as her doing something evil until she discovered that she would help in the destruction of Starclan. What would her Clanmates think, when they heard she was with the Darkforest, that she would kill her own ancestors and make them fade away?!
No, I just wont tell them! Ill fix this myself." Emberwing thought, but she then frowned. Yeah, lets just stop Silverdust, the strongest cat, dead or alive. Emberwing knew Silverdust had a special hatred for Starclan, and that sounded like a good place to start in this seemingly futile attempt.
She had to find out why Silverdust hated Starclan.
Shaking her head against a droplet of cold, Emberwing was shocked out of her thoughts at small white dots, falling from a light grey sky.
"That's snow," a voice called behind her, and Emberwing turned to see four tiny bodies barreling straight towards her with Robinflight padding a little ways behind. Momentarily pushing her worries to the side, she pretended to stagger as the kits latched themselves onto her calico fur, their tiny claws like thorns.
"Die, you Windclan mange-pelt!" Flamekit yowled, pummeling Emberwing's ears with the strength of the kit that he was. As the kits climbed onto her back, she was subjected to padding around the edge of the clearing as cats peeked their heads out of their dens, both reveling at the early snow and the poor warrior that was Emberwing being bossed around by the loud kits.
"You look like you could use some help," Troutclaw called, greeting her with a lick to her cheek. he padded towards the entrance, and Emberwing was confused until she saw him come back with a reed in his jaws.
"Go play reed toss and leave poor Emberwing alone," Robinflight ordered, and in no way were the kits fazed as they hopped down and began chasing the reed.
"Kits," her old mentor scoffed as Troutclaw went to grab fresh-kill for them both. "Emberwing, isn't it about time you start looking for a mate?" Robinflight prompted, settling down next to her and waiting for an answer.
"I, uh… Me and Troutclaw, we… um," Emberwing forced out, stubbornly blaming her stuttering on shivers and not the fact that her heart raced when she spoke his name.
"What about me?" Troutclaw asked as he padded over, a rather large fish in his maw.
"Oh, we were just talking about how it was that Emberwing needs herself a mate!" Robinflight mewed gleefully, unaware of how both young warriors were staring down at their fish, trying not to laugh as Robinflight was thinking.
"Oh, What about Thunderpelt, he's a handsome tom, and I'm sure he'd be a great father!"
Troutclaw was now choking on his mouthful of fish he'd just taken, while Emberwing tried to get the queen to stop listing all of Thunderpelt's 'perks'
"Robinflight, I already have a mate, okay?!" she forced out between the giggles that had started a moment before.
"I know, honey. Just because there's grey on my muzzle doesn't mean I'm a fish-brain."
Troutpaw finally stopped heaving for air and turned towards the queen, stunned.
"You better be in the nursery before I'm out, I'd like you to be my denmate for a while,"
Now it was Emberwing's turn to choke, and she was pretty sure Troutclaw would've too if he wasn't smart enough to stop eating while Robinflight was speaking to them.
"Robinflight, I just became a warrior! I have no business thinking about leaving my new duties to get fat and have a couple of fur balls right now."
"Whatever you say, honey!" the queen called before getting up and padding towards her mate, Nighttallon.
Emberwing enjoyed the rest of her morning meal in a some-what comfortable silence, but thoughts of the Darkforest and all of the work she still had to do to save her warrior ancestors, so she followed through with her plan.
"I'm going to see Stormwater… I'm not feeling so well," she muttered and padded quickly away before Troutclaw could ask her what exactly was wrong.
She pushed herself though the entrance to the medicine den, where she was happy to see Stormwater teaching Mistkit the basics of the herbs he had laid out before him.
"Ah, hello, Emberwing! What seems to be the problem?"
Twisting her face, she followed through with her little act. "I think I ate a bad fish, my stomach is twisting and I feel sick." To put emphasis her point, she winced and massaged her stomach with one of her paws.
"Mistkit, in situations like these, where a cat has a bellyache from eating crow-food, I give them yarrow and they spit it all out, then I give them poppy seed to help them rest."
Mouse-dung! Emberwing thought as the medicine cat and the small kit went back, deeper into the den to grab the needed herbs. She thought he would just give her the poppy, not make her vomit up the fish she'd eaten with Troutclaw! She was mourning the waste of the perfectly good fish, and mourning the blissful taste-less ness of her mouth for the last time for a while.
"Here, Emberwing, go eat these in the dirtplace so you don't make a mess in the camp, then come back for the poppy seeds."
The unwilling but seemingly grateful warrior took the foul-smelling herbs and padded into the even fouler smelling dirtplace. Trying to breathe through her mouth, she chomped down and swallowed the yarrow, and felt a moment of peace before her stomach gurgled.
~~ *ill save you guys the details*~~
Emberwing woozily padded from the dirtplace back to the medicine den, where Mistkit was asking what poppy seeds did.
"They make you sleepy," Stormwater explained, "and they help with cats who are suffering from shock, pains, or just to help bring on sleep,-
"Which is exactly what I need right now," she interrupted. She would've felt bad about it, but she was too busy cursing yarrow and Stormwater and whatever could make a cat vomit as bad as she did.
Stormwater offered her some from his paw, and she lapped them up, and padded back towards the warrior's den.
The effects of the poppy seeds were starting to work their magic; Emberwing felt dizzy but tired, and as soon as her eyes slipped shut she was asleep.
Emberwing woke in the Darkforest, her plans going right as she had, well, planned. It was bare, all cats who were alive were awake and doing clan duties, but there were some hints that Emberwing was far from the only cat in the forest.
Opening her mouth to catch a scent of the silver she-cat, she was again overwhelmed by how rank the smell of old blood was. Finally, after gagging a few times, she caught the smell of the leader and went in pursuit.
The scenery was bleak; dead trees occasionally splashed in some poor cat's blood, soggy, mushy brown soil, and a black starless sky.
Emberwing could say honestly that she hoped she wasn't dying anytime soon.
After moons of useless searching, she was startled as a large black tom leapt on top of her.
Not even waiting for the red haze to take over, Emberwing swiped the unsuspecting tom's muzzle, and was greeted with a yowl, though not the tom's.
"Black, get off of her!" at the sound of Silverdust's voice, Emberwing slid easily from the tom's loosened grip and shifted to bare her neck for their leader. She was beyond stunned when the dead warrior, Black, didn't bare his, and she prepared to see his bloody death.
Silverdust padded right passed him, with only a warning glare.
"What are you doing here, Red? Why are you asleep," Silverdust asked after Emberwing sat and fixed her neck.
"A bellyache," is all she said, not wanting the leader to ask any more questions.
"I see. Are you up for some personal training, then?"
"Actually, I wanted to ask you a question, about the attack on Starclan coming up."
Silverdust looked unfazed, and circled the young warrior.
"You want to know where in the ranks you'll be, of course… why, you'll be right up front with me and Fall, along with all of the other elder fighters, such as Black, who has seemed to have left us for the moment."
Emberwing winced, not wanting to correct Silverdust but aching to have an answer. "Actually, I was going to ask why you hate Starclan as much as you do."
Emberwing was suspecting the she-cat to glare at her, maybe tear out her throat or rip open her stomach and then make her fight, but all the glowing leader did was laugh. She laughed happily, but the giggles sent shivers up her spine.
"You really want to know? Okay, but don't say you didn't ask for this sad story you're about to hear."
The she-cat settled down and closed her blood stained eyelids to start her story.
"I was very popular amongst the toms, you see, when I was alive. I was flirted by many, from all five clans, yes," she admitted at Emberwing's stunned expression, "I lived back when Skyclan was still in the forest. Now, there was one tom that I fell in love with, named Shortgrass. He was a very handsome tom, with long golden fur and beautiful green eyes. We became mates, and soon I was in the nursery, heavy with kits.
"That night, I was visited by Starclan. They told me of a prophecy, one that had to do with my little kits. It was a prophecy of blood, of death and suffrage; they wanted me to kill my kits when they were born, so the prophecy would never be fulfilled.
"But, as im sure you will one day experience for yourself, as a queen and a mother you are bonded with your kits in a way that no other cat can understand, even before they are born. That bond is full of love; it is the only thing that will keep them alive when they are born. I refused them, telling them that even though they could be killers, that I would still care for and love them, because they were mine.
"the night that I kitted, both of my precious kits were born dead. At first, I was too filled with grief to do anything, Shortgrass had left me for another, and I was left alone with two small, cold bodies. I merely told myself that it was my fault for them being born dead, that my bond with them as a mother wasn't strong enough, but again that night Starclan spoke to me in a dream.
"They explained with ears down and tails drooping that they had killed my kits. My little Goldkit and Greenkit themselves were there; forever small and unable to even speak, stuck at the state at which they died. At the stage at which they were killed.
"I almost went insane, when I woke that morning. I told my leader of what Starclan had done, but he didn't believe me. He said that Starclan wouldn't do such a horrible thing; he even went as far as to say that maybe the kits died just because Starclan didn't think I would be a good mother.
"I killed him out of grief that night, but I was caught before I was able to wash his blood off of my paws. I was claimed insane, and deathberries forced down my throat."
Emberwing was in tears, a new, burning hatred in her heart for Starclan.
"And that, little Red, is why I am going to destroy Starclan."
:'( even though I hate Silverdust, I will be stunned if you still have no feelings other than hate for her… me myself has tears in my eyes… anyways XD
I hope you guys liked this longer-than-normal chapter, and any comments, requests, or PMs are more than welcome
i wont be posting for a few days; im going to be a cashier for my uncle's booming business... maybe ill find my Troutpaw... 3 :3
QUESTION OF THE DAY: do you think Silverdust's reason for hating Starclan is valid? if no, why? ten answers, and I will list all of you commenter's names :)
Do you want your cat to be in this story? Post his/her warrior name, (and dark soul name if you want them to be in the Darkforest) along with a brief description of appearance and personality!
Thanks for reading,
Emberfall~~~