CHAPTER 44
Hey guys I know this is kinda different because in posting from my phone. No wifi because in on vacation again XD. Bye loves! And enjoy this chapter, the one before the finale! Also the beautiful and smart Foxstar354emma wrote this! Thanks Em! -Majesty
The crowd of fighting cats swarmed around Foxflame. Hissing and screeching filled the air as bundling fur thrashed around. The she-cat had fought off her attacker and was going to help one of her Clanmates now. Turning, she saw a brown Tom speeding towards Runningbreeze. Darting forward, she jumped on the Sangius cat's back, raking her claws up his face. He threw Foxflame off, yowling away in pain. She looked back to Runningbreeze who was spooked but uninjured.
"Thank you." The fluffy black cat mewed, blinking gratefully.
Foxflame quickly licked her around the ears.
"Foxflame, look out!"
Runningbreeze's warning came too late as a heavy weight fell onto the white she-cat. She hissed in pain as teeth met the soft flesh of her ear. With a long hind leg, Foxflame raked the cat's tail. It seemed to let some pressure off her ear in its pain. In the split second she had, Foxflame threw off her attacker. Pinning the cat to the ground, she looked into the leafy green eyes of a black and gray she-cat. The flamepoint was about to claw the cats belly, but she realized that her stomach was bulging.
She's pregnant!
Foxflame jumped off the pregnant cat, letting her back up. She looked surprised.
"This is not your fight to be had." Foxflame hissed through gritted teeth.
The cat hesitated, not seeming to know what to do.
"Go." Foxflame hissed again "Now."
The gray and black cat dashed away as the battle raged on.
"Terror."
A cold hiss came from across the clearing. Foxflame didn't recognize it as first, but then realized that it was her beloved mate, Wolftail. It was so rare to hear his voice so icy.
"So the stupid mate stealer returns!" Terror spat back
Foxflame could just see over the fighting cats to spot the two gray toms. Wolftail let out a growl and flung himself at the Sangius leader. They tussled around in the dust and ripped at each other's fur. Foxflame took a step forward, about to dash onto Terror's back and give him a lesson.
"Wait."
A voice full of worry sounded from behind her. She turned to see Whiskershadow standing with wide eyes.
"Let them battle. It's their fight."
Foxflame held a steady gaze as she stared in his midnight blue eyes.
"No, Vista," She said firmly as the black tom winced at the sound of his kit name "It's mine."
With that, she bolted into the crowd. Jumping and twisting out of the way of furious class and teeth, Foxflame raced to the tom fight. When she stood before them, blood was splattering on the ground and welling from wounds in each cat. It was a pretty evenly matched fight. Terror was quick and sturdy and probably stronger, but Wolftail was much bigger.
"Stop!"
Both toms looked up to the sound of Foxflame's voice. Wolftail looked horrified and Terror's expression was unreadable.
"No..." The light gray tabby whispered in fear "Foxflame, he'll kill you."
If I let this go on any longer, you'll be the one dead!
In the moment Wolftail's wide blue eyes bore into Foxflame's with pleading for her to flee, Terror pinned the other tom to the ground. Wolftail let out a yowl as the darker tom's claws bore into his shoulders.
"Hawkfeather." Foxflame's steady voice made Terror stiffen.
"That is not my name." He growled deeply. Wolftail moaned in pain as he dug his claws deeper.
Foxflame winced at the heartbreaking sound.
"This is all my fault." She meowed quietly
"No!" Wolftail's voice came in a half moan of pain "It's not your fault! It's him! It was his choice!"
"Shut up!" Terror hissed as he dug deeper into her mate's flesh, making him screech
"Stop!" Foxflame wailed. Most of the cats had stopped fighting and were watching what was happening.
"Hawkfeather, T-Terror, whatever you want to be called," Foxflame drew in a deep breath as she whispered "It is my fault. I made you this way. You could have been a great warrior. You could have had a beautiful, loyal family. B-But I just wish that you could have seen that there was another she-cat for you to do that with."
"You are the only she-cat that I wanted to be with." He hissed, pulling his claws from Wolfatil's fur "And you rejected me!"
"You chose this mangy lump of fur instead!" He screeched, kicking the limp gray figure behind him.
Foxflame clenched her teeth as she saw how hurt and broken the love of her life was.
"He is kind and loving." She hissed "He doesn't go killing for sport or revenge. Wolftail is loyal to his Clan, but most of all, he is loyal to me and me only. You never see any other she-cats with him." She looked back up to Terror "I can't say that much about you."
He hissed and bared his teeth, throwing himself at Foxflame. She ducked out of the way, but claws still scraped her spine. The white and ginger she-cat hissed and leapt the same time Terror did. She met him in mid-air. He clawed her cheek over her long-worn scar, in which she had received from his own claws many moons ago. Blood spurted over her ginger muzzle as she fell back to the ground. Jumping to her paws, she leapt again, pinning Terror down. They stared intensely into each other's eyes with many unspoken words. Then a long sharp pain struck multiple places in Foxflame's belly. Terror had caught her off guard. Foxflame drew out her claws and raked his dark gray face over and over again. Blood spattered into her face and all over her fur, turning her white pelt red. Some of the blood belonged to her, some to her attacker. Terror moaned in pain when Foxflame stopped clawing him, one paw in the air. Pieces of his fur were missing and deep scratches lined his bloodied face. A small hunk of flesh was missing from his cheek.
What have I done?
She looked at her raised, red-with-blood paw in horror.
A cat suddenly barreled into her, throwing her off the Sanguis leader. Scrambling to her feet, she saw Canine standing protectively over Terror. He didn't speak, but his eyes conveyed his message well enough: "You can't kill him!"
Foxflame closed her eyes tightly and stepped away.
"I won't." She said firmly. She lifted her head and looked at Canine's black and white fur. "If I kill Terror, I'm as well off as he is." Foxflame steadily held his blue gaze "And I do not want to be like him."
Terror shakily got to his paws. Foxflame turned to him.
"Get out of here." She hissed "Never ever come back. My Clan may not show the mercy it did today."
The gray tom stared at the white she-cat with his one red eye. The other was swollen shut.
I could have loved you. The red liquid pool seemed to say.
Foxflame shook her fur and yowled "All of you leave!"
She was aware of sharp pain on her underbelly as Sangius cats started to flow away into the forest. Blood was dripping from her stomach wound as Terror stood still, continuing to stare at her and the camp as if he was looking at what he had lost.
"Hawkfeather, I hope that you may see the beauty in this world one day. That you can realize right from wrong and become right again."
Terror's eye bore into her gaze "I did see beauty. Once. In you. Then I realized that it wasn't real, Foxstar." He spat the last word like a piece of rotten fresh kill.
Terror turned and sulked after them. A flash of black and white fur flew across Foxflame's vision.
Moonfire.
The she-cat lunged for Terror's neck, preparing to bare down on it and kill the Sang in one swift motion. But Canine was quicker- He shoved Terror out of the way of the deathly attack. Instead of landing on their intended target, they closed around the neck of a Sang who had been hovering behind the leader.
She saw her teeth bare down on the cat's neck and a snap crackled through the air.
"Sila!" Foxflame screeched, pain burning in her flanks "What have you done?"
Blackness swirled in front of Foxflame's eyes before she could go on and her vision blurred as the pain in her belly grew more intense.
"Help m-"
Blackness took hold of everything as Foxflame collapsed on the blood stained grass.
She didn't see as a cat leaped for Moonfire in revenge, and the battle started up again, even fiercer than before. She only saw blackness, soothing, pressing blackness that consumed her mind and blocked out all other thoughts.