Perchdusk, the valiant warrior of Riverclan, bravely charged into the clearing. A tree, no, a treacherous cliff lay in his path, and he skillfully skidded to a halt. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the tail of an enemy warrior. He must be planning to push me off the cliff! Perchdusk spun around and crushed his tail beneath his mighty paws. "Take that, Thunderclan mousedung!" he shouted intimidatingly. Perchdusk turned around slowly to face his now cowering foe, towering over him. "Creep up on me, would you? You're as fox-hearted as your clanmate!" With this, Perchdusk leapt onto the shoulders of the former most powerful and feared warrior of Thunderclan, Mapleshade. Looking at him with intense fear, she crumpled to the ground. Suddenly, an image of Perchdusk's namesake and mentor, Appledusk, came to his mind. He was looking at him disapprovingly for wisely preparing to protect his clan in future battles instead of collecting yet more moss. Perchdusk looked at the moss that he had just destroyed ashamedly. If that moss had actually been Mapleshade, she would be crowfood by now! Appledusk won't see it that way, though… "Oops. I could have taken that back to the elders' den. I'll look for some more."
Maybe there's some over the edge of this cliff… Suddenly, Perchdusk was forced to the ground by an immense weight. A paw with unsheathed claws pressed against his head, and he strained to see his attacker, who roughly picked him up by the scruff as if he was some helpless kit. Perchdusk's attacker started quickly walking in the opposite direction to Riverclan's camp. He twisted his head around, wincing at the ripples of pain that this caused, and saw that his attacker was a tortoiseshell. Tortoiseshell… like Mapleshade, who was banished… Mapleshade!? Perchdusk struggled to get away, no longer desiring a confrontation with the murderer of Ravenwing and Frecklewish. In response, Mapleshade bit down into his scruff until her teeth interlocked, making him dizzy with pain. "Who are you? What do you want?" he managed to get out. Mapleshade abruptly stopped and slammed Perchdusk to the ground. "Keep still or I'll rip your throat out." Appledusk's often disappointed face reappeared in Perchdusk's mind. "I'm a Riverclan warrior! Let me go!" Mapleshade shifted seemingly as much weight as possible onto Perchdusk's back. "No you're not. You're a stupid apprentice. It's all right, I'm not interested in killing you. I only want you as bait."
Despite the mortal danger he was in, Perchdusk felt indignant. "No I'm…" Mapleshade interrupted him by shoving his face into the mud, then shifted her weight towards his haunches, and he felt a surge of panic as he was left unable to breathe. Perchdusk strained upwards to no avail, then slowly started to feel dizzy. Is this what drowning feels like? He lost the energy to fight for air and waited to see Starclan. Faintly, he heard a voice he thought he recognized. Perchdusk became vaguely aware of being lifted in the air, then dropped again. A shadow passed over him, and he slowly opened his eyes, seeing two blurry shapes, one orange and one brown. ...Appledusk?... I thought you thought I was a worthless apprentice… Why are you confronting Mapleshade? It must not be him… The orange shape hurtled towards the brown shape, which skillfully dodged it. Perchdusk closed his eyes and shook his head. When he reopened them, he saw that the orange and brown shapes were Mapleshade and Appledusk. He felt a surge of admiration for Appledusk. Suddenly, Reedshine emerged into the clearing. Perchdusk tried to make out what she was saying, but became aware that his ears were ringing. Outraged, Mapleshade leapt towards Reedshine. Perchdusk struggled to his paws just as Appledusk bravely charged in between them.
He watched in horror as Mapleshade bit his throat and slammed him into the ground, killing him. Adrenaline surged through Perchpaw, and he momentarily lost awareness of everything besides his legs, which were running faster than he could ever make them go when training with Appledusk. Perchpaw stopped perceiving even that, then abruptly became aware of his surroundings again as he fell off of Mapleshade's shoulders, hitting the ground with a thud. Blood pooled around him, and he felt a jolt of panic before realizing that it was Mapleshade's and not his own. He carefully stood up as it started entering his mouth and nose, then saw Reedshine confronting Mapleshade. "Don't come any closer! What you have done here is more terrible than anything a Clan cat has done before. But you have not won, Mapleshade. Appledusk will live on in his kits, and in their kits, and their kits in turn. His spirit will not die. He will be part of Riverclan forever!" Perchpaw felt hesitant triumph mixed with horror as Mapleshade struggled to stay on her paws.
"Then I will watch over all your kin and punish each one for what you did to me. My vengeance is not finished yet. It will never be finished!" With this, Mapleshade started stumbling out of the clearing, alarming Perchpaw. I can't let her get away! Perchpaw used his remaining strength to charge towards her as quickly as he could, but Reedshine easily caught up to him and stood in front of him, gently placing her tail, shaking with rage, on his shoulders. "She has done enough harm. Let her crawl away to die alone." Despite his fuzzy vision, Perchpaw managed to focus on Mapleshade until he could no longer see her through the bushes. Mapleshade has murdered Ravenwing… and Frecklewish… and even Appledusk, one of the strongest warriors the clans have ever known. Surely, I can't have killed her…