Chapter 64: Warning Blood
I was once again consigned to camp for the gathering due to the wound Scourge inflicted upon me as well as interacting with outsiders. I honestly believe Bluestar didn't care all that much about my meeting with Hattie, possibly even supported it, but she had to make a show of punishing me. I couldn't just play off a scratch that large which would probably leave an ugly scar. Despite this, I was overall happy. Ravenfeather seemed much more affectionate that he once was, possibly even too affectionate. He honestly didn't want to go to the Gathering without me, but I forced him to. Someone needed to keep an eye on Ashpaw. The two had had something of a falling out, so I could only hope constant exposure would help deescalate the issue.
Apparently for me, full moons cannot be a quiet night. When I closed my eyes, I found myself in a familiar place once again. The starlit meadows stretched on as far as I could see, but I was not alone. Two cats made their approach, their calico colors and resemblance to one another making it obvious of their relations to one another.
"Redtail, Spottedleaf." I greeted each with a nod.
"It is fortuitous that we could meet again so soon." Redtail mewed in a kind voice. "We've got some news for you. We've got two big things to bring up, one more mysterious than the other."
Spottedleaf continued where Redtail left off. "The time of revelation will soon be upon us. You must not hesitate. Despite Bluestar's desire, we cannot wait for a time of quiet to deal with Tigerclaw. Even now, he is secretly goading the other clans to attack Thunderclan. How you dealt with Brokentail may have swayed Bluestar to seeing the truth, but Tigerclaw is convinced that Brokentail was shown too much mercy."
I nodded, considering the implications and the threat to come. Riverclan likely wouldn't be an issue since they were still coming down from a famine and overall not being affected by Brokenstar's rein, but Shadowclan and Windclan were still highly emotional, looking for a win to stabilize their clans and prove they were still on par with the other two. Nightpelt still owed Thunderclan a favor, but he never seemed all that keen to fulfil it. I worried that he might still attack despite his obligations.
Soon my thoughts turned away from that issue. "What is the other piece of news?" I asked.
Redtail this time spoke up. "Do you remember Scourge from Bloodclan?" He asked nodding to my still wounded leg.
"How could I forget?" I snarked in response.
"Well, that duel you had… It did something. For a moment, your souls were almost synched. We may not be able to read your future Smudgefoot, but we can still see connections off you. That fight was more than just an encounter. You two linked. Your future is near impossible to tell, but you two will meet again. In fact, this connection will last far longer than I believe is reasonable. What that means, we do not know. Because of you, we now know the threat Scourge presents. We fear they will be a long-lasting threat to come. We urge you to take advantage of your anomalous nature and somehow deny this future that may come to be." He mewed with desperate emphasis.
That had me worried. Scourge was a dangerous cat, for more than the reasons of his combat effectiveness. He was ruthless. He was ambitious, and most dangerous of all, he was logical. It was like looking at a broken mirror. Certain shards distort and change the image, but overall it is a reflection of me. He was exactly like who I had once been, if not slightly more inexperienced. I had once been the most deadly man alive. My methods were effective and efficient. My tactics were brutal and discreet. I'd even been hired by the government a couple times to deal with urban assassinations. I had been terrifying, which made the coming confrontation with Scourge all the worse. I had only been killed by a lucky shot off a dead man, so I'd need to pull out all the stops to deal with Scourge.
I must have frozen up pretty hard because both Redtail and Spottedleaf looked seriously concerned.
"Smudgefoot, are you back with us?" Spottedleaf queried with obvious worry.
"Sorry. What Redtail just said shook me up pretty hard. Scourge isn't a cat I can just beat. I don't believe we'll be able to be rid of him easily without spilling a lot of blood. Unfortunately, I'll have to play it by ear hoping for an opportunity." I replied, steadying myself.
Redtail let out a concerned huff before speaking again. "That's too bad. Seeing as we've said our part, it's time we sent you back. Hopefully with two of us here, we can achieve it without awkwardly failing." Redtail teased.
"That wasn't my fault, and you know it!" Spottedleaf playfully hissed back.
Well, the two certainly sent me away, just not to where they wanted. My vision shifted as the two seemed to push me out of Starclan expecting me to just return to my sleeping form. My soul must have decided to make a pitstop or something because I was not returned yet. Instead, I found myself in a forest with dirt as black as coal and uncomfortably sticky. The trees were grey and barren. The texture was chalky, revealing that they were petrified. I had some time to kill before I'd return on my own, so I set to wandering a bit.
Something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. There was a flash of orange and white from a tree branch overhead. The way it moved could only be done by something alive. I decided to chance it and call out.
"Hello? Anyone there?" I mewed rather loudly.
A large calico molly with a distinct set of scars made an appearance. One scar was three faint lines passing over her eyelid. The other was a deep bite wound across the back of her neck. That one still looked fresh with deep red skin covering the wound and faint pockets of blue and yellow hinted at puss and bruising. It was a filthy wound if I've ever seen one. How she was still standing so confidently with that was beyond me.
"Would you look at this… We don't get many visitors here. And it appears you are alive too. What brings a cat like you around these parts?" She baited, clearly somehow hoping to leverage my answer.
"Just thought I'd drop in." I cheekily replied, depriving her of a potentially useful answer. It was my turn to try and bait information out of her. "You seem to have a nasty neck wound. You look a bit too tough for a rogue to have done that."
"Oh. That's just my death wound. I was caught in an ambush from a cat I'd thought I'd dealt with." She answered.
The way she toned her voice gave much away. She wasn't all that upset at it. It was almost consigned. It took me a bit to realize, but this place and this cat seemed not to match Starclan's ideals. Then I realized where I likely was. This must have been something g of the clans' cat hell.
"Let's stop beating around the bush. I know you aren't a good cat. Something tells me this is where Starclan sends all that it rejects. Fortunately for you, I'm willing to hear you out."
The molly bit back a his after I called her out, but she didn't seem to want to miss the opportunity to speak about herself. This place is rather desolate. She likely was dying to speak to someone again.
"I'm not sure if you've heard my tale. My name is Mapleshade." She mewed, drawing forth memories of a myth from the elders den.
"You are the mother who was cast out of her clan for an interclan affair, lost her kits, and went on a bloody rampage for revenge." I replied, remembering how the elders spoke of her in hushed whispers.
"That… is accurate, but it messes some key details. Those kits died, not because of a failure on my part, but because of those I ended up killing later. The medicine cat, he forced Oakstar's paw into publicly outing my kits' origins and calling for my exile. Frecklewish, the second cat, was the one who forced my kits out as well. My kits were innocent. Even with their heritage, casting them out was wrong. They cast me out in a storm. My kits and I tried to cross the Steppingstones to Riverclan where their wather was, but that fate was denied. A sudden surge of water took them away, leaving only me. The second cat wronged me again. She had all the means to have helped save my kits from drowning, but she just watched. Finally as I was grieving, the final cat wronged me. He was my former mate, the father of my kits. He called my kits mistakes and forced me out of Riverclan while I was still mourning their loss. I didn't even get to bury them. So yes, I did wrong, but can you blame me?" she explained.
"I'd probably have done the same." I answered firmly. "Never been too keen on the whole bloodlines thing the clans seem so focused on. It's a bad practice that leads to genetic deformities and breeds aggression between the clans."
"Right!" She mewed excitedly, now having found a cat who empathizes with her.
Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to speak further as I felt a shake from Ravenfeather who wanted to tell me about the events of the Gathering.