...yeah I don't really have an excuse this time around. Guess work drains me more than I thought.
Here's your daily reminder to not feed the trolls, especially because they've been out in full force on fanfiction lately. I managed to get a copy-paste guest review that somehow bypassed the system (I have to moderate anon reviews and this one went straight to being posted without my say so) and basically said that they wanted to like my story but it was trash, that I need to improve my writing, and then told me to give good reviews to someone or they would report me to some association and a bunch of other nonsense. It gave me good laugh before I deleted it lol
Reviews are appreciated! (Just not troll reviews)
Bramblestar felt a strange wave of familiarity as he blazed a path through the sea of badgers, lashing out with his claws and raking the badgers down their sides. For a moment, he was drawn back to Thunderclan's first days of living by the lake, when another group of badgers had tried to attack them in their own camp.
They had lost a warrior and their medicine cat that day. Somehow, the current group of badgers seemed worse than the last, almost never-ending as his cats were getting lost in a field of black and white.
Then Bramblestar saw Squirrelflight. The dark ginger she-cat bunched her muscles and soared upward in a massive leap, clearing the back of a badger that stood in her way. Her paws barely touched the ground before she sprang up again, reached a low-growing beech branch, then leaped to the fork between an ash branch and the tree's trunk. Then she hurled herself down with a shriek on top of the badger that he realized had been looming over Tawnypelt.
The badger reared up, throwing Squirrelflight off. He let out a yowl of anger and charged forth as the badger quickly scored its claws down Squirrelflight's side before she could react. She let out a painful howl in response.
He ducked under the badger's jaws and slashed at its throat. The badger withdrew and lumbered away, staggering in its steps as it desperately tried to retreat. He would have loved to finish it off, but Squirrelflight needed his help more. He nudged her to her feet, fighting off the urge to take her by the scruff and hull her away from the battle.
"Come on, we got to get you to Jayfeather," he said briskly.
"I can still fight!" she snarled.
"And you'll fight better when you're not bleeding out," he hissed, looking at the scratches marring her flank. The badger's claws had hit in deeper than he thought, and Squirrelflight was bleeding a little too much for his liking.
The sounds of battle were beginning to die away. Some of the badgers had already fled, and the others were yielding, ready to be chased off. Bramblestar allowed himself a sigh of relief as he guided Squirrelflight away.
"Bramblestar! Squirrelflight! Watch out!" Jessy screeched.
The scent of badger assaulted his senses, his back tingling in dread. He only had heartbeats to turn himself around and shove himself and Squirrelflight to the ground as the biggest and most ferocious badger of the group loomed over them, its claws already retreating from where it tried to swipe at them.
He saw his chance and launched himself forward then spotted Jessy hurling herself at the badger from the opposite side. The badger had been distracted by Bramblestar, being in its immediate vicinity and couldn't defend itself from Jessy's claws in time. It roared out in anger and twisted around to snap at Jessy.
She jumped up and down away from the badger, backing away so that she was always just out of reach but able to get in a few hits along the way.
"Come back!" Bramblestar yowled.
"No," Jessy responded. "I know what I'm doing! Just get Squirrelflight to safety!"
He wanted to protest and leap after her, because he knew Jessy wouldn't last long by herself against a badger of such size. But Squirrelflight was bleeding, not heavily, but enough to warrant taking her out of battle. She was struggling to get to her paws.
"Don't worry about me! Help Jessy!" she yowled, her face cringing in pain.
The badger had driven Jessy towards the edge of where the undergrowth started. Jessy was getting visibly tired as she constantly ducked and swerved around the badger, and the hulking creature hadn't seemed to slow down any.
His mind was beginning to swirl around in panic; he didn't feel good about leaving Squirrelflight by herself, even if the sounds of battle were beginning to die down, but he needed to help Jessy.
Hissing drew his attention away from Jessy's fight. A badger had lumbered over, attracted by the scent of Squirrelflight's blood. She hissed back, tail lashing furiously.
'If I don't do something now, one of them will die!'
The sound of beating wings and the feeling of harsh wind saved him from making a decision.
Bramblestar gaped as Firestar appeared over the clearing, the trees and leaves whipping around them violently. His mouth was already parted into a snarl, whisps of smoke emerging from his maw.
Around them, the battle stopped to a screeching halt, cat and badger alike staring up at the furious dragon.
Without a word, Firestar landed, the ground shaking from his descent. He lowered a foreleg to the ground, and he saw Brightheart hastily make her way down his claws, a large bundle of herbs in her mouth.
'Jayfeather must have called for her,' he realized.
Once Brightheart had gotten off, Firestar dug his claws into the earth. He eyed Squirrelflight's side, matted with dirt and blood, and then at the badger that had been threatening Jessy, who had stopped its assault on the she-cat in order to tremble in front of the clearly larger predator.
A rumble sounded from his throat, a loud growl that Firestar seemed to be preparing to transition into a roar. The roar would go unneeded, as the badger quickly lumbered away, its fear scent strong in the air.
The badger that had gotten too close to Squirrelflight found itself suddenly airborne as Firestar's tail smacked it hard. Its squealing grew quieter as it sailed over the trees. Bramblestar briefly wondered if the badger would survive the landing.
Firestar was already by Squirrelflight, nosing her side in concern. "Let's get you to Jayfeather, hatchling," he murmured.
Bramblestar snapped out of his thoughts, rushing over to Squirrelflight to help steady her. He caught Jessy's eye as he started guiding Squirrelflight, feeling grateful for her courage and quick thinking.
"Not bad- for a kittypet," he meowed.
Jessy let out a small mrrow of amusement. "Not bad- for a wild cat," she retorted.
Warriors from Shadowclan and Thunderclan stood side by side, their chests heaving, blood trickling from their wounds, as they assessed the damage. The Shadowclan warriors bristled at Firestar's appearance, but their injuries and the fear of what Firestar could do to them kept them in place.
Looking around at the rest of the cats, Bramblestar saw that none of them was unmarked. Spiderleg was one of the worst injured, with almost all his fur missing from one side, while Scorchfur had both ears slashed, and Ivypool was standing on three legs with one paw raised and bleeding. But all the wounds looked as if they would heal in time.
'We won!' Bramblestar thought, exhilaration flooding through him. 'We defeated the badgers and survived!'
He felt a light touch on his shoulder. He turned to see Brightheart, her one eye glazed in dull shock and exhaustion. "We're lucky I got here with the herbs as quick as I did. Dustpelt almost didn't make it."
Bramblestar followed Brightheart across the clearing, still guiding Squirrelflight. Dustpelt was lying on his side in the midst of the trampled debris from the battle, wrapped in every herb he could think of. His eyes were closed, his sides rising and falling slowly.
"Well, you look terrible," Squirrelflight breathed out.
Then Jayfeather's head snapped towards her, nose twitching. "Could say the same about you."
"I think he needs the herbs more," she countered.
"Don't argue with the medicine cat," Bramblestar said tiredly. "You know Firestar will just fuss over you for a moon if you don't get treated."
She didn't need to turn to know that her father was staring at the group anxiously. Squirrelflight sighed but acquiesced to their orders, allowing Jayfeather to examine her over.
"You might have some trouble moving Dustpelt back to your camp. I wouldn't recommend moving him with how injured he is, but I wouldn't stick out here for too long," Littlecloud said, padding over to them.
Bramblestar tapped his tail against his leg. "We'll think of a way. Thank you for saving him," he meowed, tipping his head to the Shadowclan medicine cat.
Something lightly traced his flank. Tawnypelt had stalked up to sit beside him. "I think we should be thanking you. I can never thank you enough for what you did tonight," she purred. "This was more than Thunderclan protecting its own hunting grounds, wasn't it? You came because you are my brother, and I needed you."
Bramblestar gazed into her warm green eyes. "Always," he murmured. An image flashed into his mind of the lake filling with scarlet water that swirled to the surface until it swallowed the reflected starlight. Leafpool's strange prophecy echoed in his ears: When water meets blood, blood will rise. And finally Bramblestar understood.
'Tawnypelt shares my blood. We are the son and daughter of Tigerstar and Goldenflower. When the flood threatened us both, our kinship gave us strength to survive. That's what the prophecy meant!'
Bramblestar didn't try to explain all this to Tawnypelt. He knew this wasn't the place or the time. But he raised his head to look at the stars glittering above him, and sent up a silent prayer of thanks to Starclan.
"Tawnypelt, it's time to go back to camp." Rowanstar's voice broke into Bramblestar's thoughts. Tawnypelt dipped her head, then touched noses briefly with Bramblestar before turning away to join her clanmates, who were limping out of the clearing.
Rowanstar faced Bramblestar. His orange pelt was ruffled and smeared with blood, and one eye was swollen closed. But he held his head high, and stood with his shoulders squared. But it was also clear to see Rowanstar's paranoia in full display, his one visible eye waving. There was a stench of fear that clung to him. "We didn't ask for your help!" he hissed.
Bramblestar said nothing. He wasn't going to get Tawnypelt into trouble by telling her mate about the plea for help. He wondered when Rowanstar would realize that Thunderclan had enabled them to win this battle. He waited for one of the Shadowclan warriors to pitch in and point out that without Thunderclan, the badgers would have destroyed them all. But no cat spoke, and Rowanstar still glared at Bramblestar as if he was on the verge of continuing the battle.
"Are you trying to torment us? You said he wouldn't interfere with our lives as long as we keep to our side of the border! And we have! Now you're bringing Firestar into battle like you can intimidate us? Show the clans how powerful Thunderclan is?" Rowanstar spat at him.
"He didn't bring me into anything. This was of my own accord," Firestar sniffed, leering down at the Shadowclan leader. Rowanstar threw up a glare that not even a kit would be scared at. Bramblestar could even see the leader's tail wavering, like it was ready to hide between Rowanstar's legs.
He cast a glance over at the cluster of Shadowclan cats. They stared at the exchange fearfully. The only one who wasn't visibly scared of Firestar was Tawnypelt, whose eyes only shared gratefulness when he gaze landed on the dragon.
"I thought I told you I didn't want you to interfere again," he said softly, turning his gaze back towards Firestar. Inside though, he was also incredibly grateful that Firestar had shown up when he did.
"I didn't interfere… much. Brightheart was the one who carried the herbs here. I just made the trip faster."
"And the badger?"
The dragon almost seemed to smirk. "Collateral damage," he replied.
"I don't care how much interference he thinks he's doing! Stop interfering, both of you! This is your last warning!" Rowanstar snarled.
"Don't presume to command me, Rowanstar," Firestar hissed, his eyes tinting red. "I will do as I please. This lake is mine, remember?"
Bramblestar's head snapped upwards towards Firestar in shock. 'Don't go around saying that!'
Rowanstar got the message easily enough as he all but ran towards his now terrified clanmates, ushering them out of the clearing.
Firestar lowered his head for Bramblestar. "I will not interfere in any decisions you make, or any battles you think need to be fought. But I've been ignoring these instincts for too long. I will do whatever it takes to protect those that are mine," he murmured, eyes reflecting Bramblestar's visage in them.
What could Bramblestar even say in response?
'He wouldn't hurt me. But how far is he willing to go in order to protect us?'
There was so much he wanted to say. There was so much he wanted to feel. He felt terrified and heartbroken.
'You've already changed so much. I don't want you changing further,' he lamented.
But as he gazed into red-tinted eyes, full of love and protectiveness, he also felt a semblance of love and safety.
"Okay," he finally uttered.
I'm getting closer to the end of Bramblestar's Storm... hooray I guess. It only took 5000 years...
Dustpelt lives! Because I say so. Poor guy still has to live without Ferncloud though.
Also here's some Fires fussing over Squirrel cause she's his daughter, of course he cares about her.
Hopefully I'll write some family-fluff in a later chapter.
Tell me how I did.