SUNFIRE

Sunfire lost himself in the heaving mass of cats, tossed and shoved like a kit swept downriver. As he battered at a HillClan warrior with his hind paws, familiar pelts and scents flashed by, but he could only behold them for a moment before they were sucked away in the maelstrom.

There, Ryebreeze, claws outstretched, chasing a streaming tail. Over there, Owlswoop flat on his back, struggling under a MireClan tortoiseshell's weight. Cloverpaw and Kestrelpaw fighting side by side, and Fang's long white coat so splotched with blood he hardly recognized the rogue at first.

When he threw the HillClan warrior back, they too were swallowed up in the chaos, leaving Sunfire scrambling alone through the throngs of fighting cats. He only made it a few pawsteps before he was lurching into another cat's side.

LeafClan scent, a dappled brown coat and white belly, blue eyes staring back at him as wide as moons. "Thrushear!" Sunfire hissed. "I don't want to hurt you."

Thrushear paused, but only for a moment. Sunfire clenched his eyes shut, ducking his head back as claws flashed and raked him across the nose. "Fox-dung!" Sunfire hissed, another blow catching him across the head as he was forced a step back. Forepaws locked around Sunfire's head and shoulders in a grip, teeth sinking into his scruff and forcing his face into the grass.

The grip released a moment of pain later, Thrushear giving an agonized yowl. Sunfire squirmed back to his feet, just in time to see his apprentice leaping onto Thrushear's back, punishing him with furious scrabbling kicks. The dappled brown warrior swayed and swung under Mistpaw weight before finally losing his balance, spilling to the ground as Mistpaw continued to slash and cut.

"Rowanstar!" The voice roared out over the field like rolling thunder, drowning out the pandemonium of fighting warriors. "Face me yourself!"

Bluepaw was shoving at his mentor, Honeypad, still dazed on the ground. The apprentice's voice was hoarse as he urged her to stand.

Sunfire weaved between pockets of spitting and writhing cats until he saw them in the heart of the scrum. Burdockstar was lowered into a hunter's stance, haunched and lashing her tail, ears flat to her head. Her prey stood tall along the red flowers, squaring his shoulders, Rowanstar not yielding a mouse-length of earth.

Rowanstar's shoulder already glistened with an earlier wound, a broad red smiling gash, some whiskers missing, his breathing heavy.

The MireClan warrior's face was painted with blood. "Here, the mole shows his head at last," she laughed. "Some of your warriors found StarClan already, trying to keep me from you. I'll have both a deputy and a leader to my name tonight."

Beethorn, dead? Could it be a lie? Sunfire watched his father's face wince.

"If only I'd found you first, then she might breathe," Rowanstar growled. "Well, here I am. Survive me, if you can!"

There was no ceremony, no slow circling or exchanging of boxing paws. They lunged at each other, a tangle of blue and reddish fur, one on top of the other before they broke apart. She snapped her teeth at him, making him slip to one side, but one powerful blow against the head made Rowanstar lose his footing.

As he spilled to the ground, Burdockstar reared up on her paws, crashing back down on him with a vicious yowl.

He twisted, pinned beneath her massive paws, scrabbling at her belly. Still she held him, her teeth baring down on the leader's neck.

Sunfire didn't remember moving. He just knew he was flying, streaking over the grass like a sparrow and crashing into the MireClan leader's flank at full speed. She went tumbling to the ground, flattening the flowers beneath her.

He didn't give her a moment to rise, and they joined in a screeching knot of teeth and claws, until both their pelts were matted with blood, grass, and petals. For a moment, just a moment, Sunfire stood over her, his claws in her throat.

Just for a moment.

A sharp kick in his belly, claws digging into his core. She seemed to reach up and work his own limbs against him, sending them both rolling across the ground. When they came to a stop again, this time it was Burdockstar over him.

Her face filled his vision, blue eyes glowing cold. Then, her paw, closing in over his face as she raked from brow to neck. Slow, thorn-sharp claws, tearing through flesh, down across one eye, down, down.

He twisted, struggled, howled in agony, but her other paw held him down.

Again, she raked, again and again, as he writhed like trapped prey. And the louder he screamed, the faster and more feverish she seemed to claw at him, almost like she might dig through to his skull.

Don't die here.

His fumbling paws pressed up against her, and with strength born from desperation, kicked her away with a heave. Somehow, he was on his paws, the earth spinning around him, blood stinging his eyes as it flowed freely down his face. Half-blind, he stumbled, then he lunged, unleashing a flurry of blows on the MireClan leader.

She dropped back, and back, until two more cats fell upon her. His father, Rowanstar, spitting and clawing, and his brother, Sorreltail, red fur splotched even darker with fresh blood. The three of them clawed and swiped and dared to lunge with teeth bared.

Then another, and another. Sneezy, with arched back, looking more terrified than fierce. Dolly, her ear nicked into a sharp V-shape, blood flowing down in a dark trickle. Socks, rounding around to nip and swat at Burdockstar's tail.

If anything, somehow, he looked like he was having fun.

The MireClan leader rounded around, springing away and melting back into the battle, with the rogues giving chase.

As soon as she was gone, Sunfire collapsed back onto his haunches, only able to manage a low hiss of pain when he wanted to curse himself and the entire forest to the stars and back. Still, he couldn't open one eye, feeling like half his face was scourged by fire, pressed against a burning tree.

Sorreltail was gawking at him like Burdockstar had ripped his head off and thrown it across the field. But his father sunk back into the grass, flank rising and falling heavily.

"Rowanstar, are you okay?" Sunfire managed to wheeze.

Their leader stood, but slow and shuddering, keeping the weight off one of his forepaws. He looked as if he had all of StarClan swimming in his eyes, staring at him in dazed silence.

"I'm supposed to give my life among flowers," Rowanstar murmured, panting. "You saved me, Sunfire."

"You speak like I wanted you dead," Sunfire rasped. Hit his head too hard? Rowanstar looked dream-stricken, speaking nonsense about flowers.

Still, the battle raged around him. A scattered ring of rogues and LeafClan warriors, the enemy swarming all around them as innumerable as bees. Still, the struggle and pain wasn't over. But when he went to spring back into the fray, Rowanstar stopped him with a paw pressed against his flank.

"Stay and breathe awhile, Sunfire!" he urged. "You bleed too much. Sorreltail, go with him."

"Not me, unless I bleed too!" Sorreltail growled.

"Owlswoop!" Rowanstar roared, a leader's voice that still rang over the battle even in his weakened state. The brown dappled warrior broke from the fighting, stumbling to his leader's side, flanks heaving with labored breaths. "Take Sunfire to Murkpool!"

"Come, I'll lead you to the medicine cat!" Owlswoop shouted over the din of battle.

"Lead me?" Sunfire scoffed, grinning despite the burning pain raging across the left side of his face. It stung, even to smile. "It's a scratch. I won't leave until I've found Nettlefang."

"Come, enough talk! With me, Owlswoop!" Sorreltail yowled, and both warriors went rushing fearlessly back into the melee. Around them, Hawkwing fought shoulder-to-shoulder with Quailpaw and Swiftpaw, as Asterstripe limped by with a bloody grimace. Boulderstep's pelt was scored with deep scratch marks, all the way down the length of his coat, but he still kept three HillClan warriors at distance with powerful, wide swats. Behind him, Tansypaw pressed her nose into a bloodied bundle of golden tabby fur, what could only be the LeafClan deputy's body. Left there, where she'd fallen.

Rowanstar looked like he still had more to say, but his shouts were lost in the roar of blood in his ears as Sunfire flung himself back into the mob of cats.


Half-blind, ears ringing, still they found each other. As if passing under the eye of a storm, the shifting masses of cats parted, and Sunfire stood hardly a fox-length away from Nettlefang. Swept together by the tides of battle.

Nettlefang stalked forward with a wolfish visage, an ashen shadow. "Oh, Sunfire," he sneered, cocking his head like a predator might do, sizing up its prey. "I have to say, some cat did your face an improvement."

It burned like lightning where the MireClan leader had raked him. "Thank you," Sunfire said. "I'm trying on a new look."

"But it's uneven. I can still scratch out the other eye for you too."

They circled each other with slow, deliberate pawsteps, tails lashing now. Then without warning, Nettlefang pounced, crashing into him and rolling with the impact. Sunfire looked up to Nettlefang on top of him, his claws planted in his neck. But before he could bite down, Sunfire kicked and wriggled free, raking his claws across Nettlefang's shoulder.

"I've been wanting this since we were kits," Nettlefang said, trailing his hiss of pain, as both warriors circled each other again. "You always were the kittypet." Each and every time they had sparred beneath the Father Oak as apprentices, Nettlefang had thrashed him. The memory was still clear of the last time they'd faced each other down like this, Sunpaw and Nettlepaw.

Some stupid demonstration for a technique he couldn't even remember. He just remembered standing, heart in his throat… and the next moment being pinned to the ground, yelping under a flurry of unsheathed claws. Sparrowflight had to yank her apprentice off him by the scruff, and he ended his day early in the medicine den.

He'd never beaten Nettlefang in anything, not once. Not even chasing the moss ball around camp as kits.

Sunfire leaped this time, claws outstretched and sending Nettlefang flying to the ground. Stunned and knocked off his footing for just one moment, he clamped one of Nettlefang's legs in his jaws, digging in his teeth as if to snap the bone.

But Nettlefang's free paw came around, a heavy blow knocking him upside the head and forcing him to stagger back.

"When you're gone, I'll be everything you are and better," Sunfire snarled in defiance, despite the way his hearing seemed to come and go. Two suns couldn't keep the same sky, and neither could they keep the same Clan. "You can forget about sharing glory with me anymore."

"Glory! Don't make me laugh!" They came together again, clawing and kicking, pushing and grappling each other, stumbling and tearing up clods of earth with their hind legs. "The whole forest knows what you are."

They locked together on the ground, face to face, claws digging into each other's pelts.

"They'll know something else before I part from you," Sunfire hissed in his ear, voice hoarse and strained with struggle. "Your pelt will be my trophy, and I'll take all that praise and renown you've won for myself."

Nettlefang yowled, breaking their iron grip on each other with a surge of strength. "I can't listen to your preening anymore!" he raged. Bolts of fire seemed to lance through his bloodstream as blow after blow drove Sunfire back. The gray warrior reared up to strike, and Sunfire couldn't scrabble away in time.

Stars flashed in his vision, down on the grass again with Nettlefang hovering over him. Their whiskers were so close, they practically breathed the same air, one paw pinning Sunfire down by the throat. He could feel warm pinpricks of blood well up beneath his enemy's claws, the gargling in his own throat. The taste of iron filled his mouth.

Nettlefang raised up his claws again for the death blow, and Sunfire closed his eyes, inhaled deep, and spit.

A thick globule of blood and saliva sprayed up in Nettlefang's muzzle, in his eyes, and that was just the split second distraction Sunfire needed to angle his head and clamp his teeth down on Nettlefang's leg.

He leveraged the warrior's weight against him as they went rolling over, and Sunfire lashed out with one forepaw.

A gush of red sputtered from Nettlefang's neck, his jaws parting for breath as Sunfire released him and stumbled back.

"Sunfire—you…" the young warrior choked, blood gargling in his throat. "I…" No more words, just one faint exhale as light faded from his blue eyes.

Sunfire stood over him, dizzy and faint-headed, the sounds of battle growing almost muted to the ringing in his ears. Dust and food for worms, he thought, staring down at Nettlefang's unmoving form.

How much Nettlefang seemed to shrink in death, no longer burning with ambition. When that body still contained a spirit, the whole forest seemed too small for him. Now a few paces of vile earth would be room enough.

"Farewell, great heart," he managed, a small prayer only heard by himself, voice weak and scratchy with overuse. He'd never give him the compliment if he still breathed air. But still, something in him pressed him to close the young warrior's eyes before staggering away.

Let his ignominy sleep with him in his grave below the poppies, but not be remembered in their stories.

Even as cats continued to fight around him, he moved through the battle in a dazed state of calm, until his eyes spied another unnatural lump among the grass. Pale flecked gray fur, legs stiff and splayed beneath him, lying among a pillow of grass and flowers.

Goosebelly.

He felt his heart sink as he approached. "All this flesh and not even a little life…" Sunfire murmured to himself, blinking stinging tears from his eyes. "Poor Goosebelly—farewell. I could have better spared a better warrior." Nobler cats had lost their lives that night, but none would be dearer remembered.

Something bumped into him, and he whirled with delayed reflexes, lashing out his claws. But it was just his clanmate—his brother. It took a moment for Sunfire's vision to adjust, the reddish blur taking shape in front of him. Sorreltail was shouting something at him, but he only heard every other word.

"...you… a med… Are you…?"

"Nettlefang's dead," Sunfire murmured. "Goosebelly too."

"Sunfire, come—"

But whatever he said next, he didn't hear. The early stars streaked as the world spun around him, and Sunfire collapsed into the grass.


When he blinked his eyes open again, it was well and truly nightfall, with Sorreltail and Murkpool both hovering over him wearing matching grimaces. The sounds of battle had receded, the yowling more distant.

"You had me deceived," Sorreltail mewed warmly. "My brother has some warrior spirit after all."

"Please, hold still," Murkpool insisted in a warbling voice, but Sunfire forced himself to sit up, surveying the field with a quick sweep of his head. Bodies lying among the flowers, the grass wet and glistening with blood beneath the moonlight.

"Did we—" Sunfire started, but the medicine hushed him.

"Still, be still!"

Sunfire held still, as still as he could even padded at his face with some kind of poultice smeared on his paws. To him, it might as well have been stinging nettles or poison ivy. But when Sorreltail stood to attention, tail high, he couldn't help himself and turned his head.

A great, lumbering shape, dragging something behind it in the grass like a scavenger.

"Hold on," Sorreltail said. "Didn't you tell me this sack of fleas was dead?"

Sunfire stared wordlessly at what could only be the spirit of Goosebelly, dragging Nettlefang's limp corpse by the scruff. "I did," he mewed breathlessly. "I saw him dead, breathless and bleeding on the ground!"

But that was Goosebelly, coming toward them all the same. No stars in his pelt. Really, hardly any wounds at all.

"Are you alive?" Sunfire called out, incredulous. Or was his head playing tricks on him? Maybe this was StarClan after all, with Goosebelly come to collect him. He couldn't trust his eyes without hearing that familiar voice again, although it was his mentor's image approaching him down to the last whisker. "You are not what you seem."

"No, that's certain," Goosebelly said between a mouthful of scruff, dropping Nettlefang's body at his feet. "I'm not a double cat—but if I'm not Goosebelly, then I'm a goose."

They all stared down at the corpse, awkwardly splayed in the grass in front of him.

"If Rowanstar will give me the honor I deserve, let him do so," Goosebelly mewed. "Otherwise, let him kill the next Nettlefang himself. I expect to be the next deputy, or at least celebrated back in camp, I assure you."

"Nettlefang, I killed myself," Sunfire growled, making Goosebelly jump back with his sudden lunge. "And I saw you dead."

"Did you?" Goosebelly gasped back, not so convincingly. "Good StarClan, how this world is given to lying. I-I grant you, I was down and out of breath, and so was he… but we both rose at an instant, and fought a bloody duel until moonrise." He gestured down at the body. "I swear, I gave him this fatal wound to his neck, here. And if he were alive and would deny it, I'd make him eat his own tongue!"

"This is the strangest tale that I ever heard," Sorreltail balked.

"This is the strangest cat, Sorreltail," Sunfire sighed, looking his former mentor up and down. As thorn-pricked as he felt, he couldn't deny that it was like a stone weight had been lifted off his chest. "Come, bring your bloody prize. If a lie might do you some grace, then I'll spin it with the happiest terms I have."

Near and far, across the fields, he heard yowls of triumph and cries of victory. LeafClan warriors, he hoped.

"Time to see which of our clanmates are living, and which are dead," Sunfire said.