The Maple's Guardian Light Chapter 7: Dark Moon Night, a Warriors + Hetalia - Axis Powers Crossover fanfic

Chapter 5-Dark Moon Night

The ThunderClan patrol soon returned to camp after Maplestreak learned the rest of the territory. He saw the abandoned twoleg nest (where Jayfeather gets his cat mint for greencough, which is the cat word for pneumonia), the training hollow (where he'll be learning his battle moves mostly), the blocked tunnels, (where he learned of some ancient cats who lived here long before the Clans, Fallen Leaves' death, and how WindClan tried to use them for invading and failed) and the ShadowClan border (where they just missed he patrol, thankfully), as well as the neutral area around the lake that was two fox lengths from the edge of the water. He also noticed a small human camp near the twoleg nest that he knew won't stay for long.

He couldn't help but still be curious on one thing; an island near the edge of the lake that seemed to border WindClan and RiverClan (which he learned that ThunderClan is in far friendlier terms with those cats. Especially since Mistystar, the RiverClan leader, is half-ThunderClan much to his surprise!)

He soon caught sight of Poppyfrost, Berrynose's mate, and asked her about it.

"Oh that's the island where the Clans hold a special meeting, called the Gathering, when the moon is fullest, even though RiverClan tried to make it their camp at first since they are the better fishers and swimmers when the Clans first arrived here," she replied. "The Clans meet there in peace to speak of general news with in their Clans, while being careful not to reveal any deep secrets…though some cats already have and that led to some nasty consequences. Like when Hollyleaf revealed that Leafpool was her mother and not Squirrelflight, which led to some heavy distrust from Bramblestar, before he was leader, as well as Leafpool losing her medicine cat duties to Jayfeather. Hollyleaf soon exiled herself for some time because of what she did that nearly destroyed her family."

"Eventually they did forgive one another seeing Squirrelflight only wanted to protect her sister and Hollyleaf soon found her place to even die protecting the Clan that forgave her," Maplestreak concluded even though he secretly felt there was more to that story and Poppyfrost nodded, but then he asked, "Is there a Gathering soon?"

"Yes, in a few days actually. Maybe Bramblestar would let you go this time to meet some of the cats from the other Clans."

Now that got his eyes to almost light up in excitement like his brother's would! Going to such a meeting would help him understand even more about his mission, and hopefully make new friends with cats from the other Clans, like he already did with Crowfeather! Of course he would have to try to earn it first by the sounds of things and his opportunity came when Lionblaze walked over.

"Maplestreak it's time for some battle training," he said and the golden tom nodded to his mentor before following him to the sandy hollow. "Today we're going to test you on what battle skills you already know and see what we can improve during your stay here. So for now it will be a sparring match without using our claws, alright?"

Maplestreak nodded as he took a battle stance and Lionblaze wasted no time in leaping at him. But the experienced warrior missed as the younger one dodged to the side and kicked him to the ground. Maplestreak soon went in for an attack, but switched to the defensive quickly as Lionblaze swiped at him so he went around before the warrior had a chance to access the situation and leaped onto his back, knocking him off balance and pinning him to the ground.

"How's that?" he asked and the warrior laughed.

"Very good! You are a very good fighter with those eyes of yours! You can read your opponents and know when to strike or dodge! Let's have another round and see if you can pin me down again!"

Maplestreak nodded as he got off his mentor and got ready for his attack, giving a smirk that would almost rival his brother's as he seemed to be enjoying himself in this training session. Lionblaze leapt faster this time so he ducked then launched himself to knock the warrior out of the air before going in to strike. Again he had to dodge quickly, however, as Lionblaze managed to recover and try to strike him in return so he ploughed into the warrior, catching him by surprise, and pinned him onto his back this time.

Lionblaze stared in surprise and then laughed again as he was let up. "Very good! You seemed to show more strength that time! Your techniques could almost rival Firestar's!"

"Was he a tricky fighter too?" Maplestreak asked after catching his breath and his mentor nodded.

"He certainly was! In fact I heard that Bluestar herself trained him up in some interesting techniques! Now I wasn't trained by Firestar but if we ask Bramblestar I'm sure he would share some moves since he was Firestar's last apprentice. Now let's go for something to eat; all of that practice made me hungry!"

The golden tom nodded as he followed him back into the camp to almost run into a badly scarred white and ginger she-cat. "Whoops! Sorry Brightheart!"

She laughed. "It's alright Maplestreak. It sounded like you had an enjoyable training session!"

"We did indeed!" Lionblaze replied. "Maplestreak here is a tricky fighter with also a good amount of strength! He managed to easily pin me down twice! I was thinking of asking Bramblestar to help with teaching him some new tricks when he has the time."

Maplestreak blushed at the praise and Brightheart smiled. But then Berrynose came running in and sped past the golden tom without acknowledgement.

"Maple!" he said in surprise as he saw the cream-coloured tom speak to Squirrelflight. "What was that about?!"

The deputy strolled over to them, as if to answer his question. "Maplestreak you have travelled a lot, right? Does your travels help you learn different ways of speaking?"

"As in a new language different from what you're used to?" he asked and she nodded. "It can when necessary, why?"

"There's a wandering kittypet on our territory. Sandstorm and Leafpool are having a hard time understanding her. She doesn't seem hostile at all but I figure you may want to help. Just follow Berrynose and he'll lead you to her."

As much as Berrynose looked like he didn't like this idea, he reluctantly led the way and Maplestreak followed after nodding to Squirrelflight in agreement. The two toms soon found the patrol and there was a long furred white and light brown-splotched kittypet with green eyes, a pink bell collar sitting patiently with Sandstorm and Leafpool.

"Hello Maplestreak," Leafpool greeted. "I'm sorry for you to come at such short notice but we need a way of understanding this kittypet. She can't seem to understand what we are saying to her as well, since her language sounds different from our own."

"Hmm…let me try something then," he replied then turned to the kittypet and immediately swapped to French once he saw she seemed to be some sort of French breed, like Francis was in his dream last night. "Bonsoir, mademoiselle. Comment ça va?"

The kittypet gasped in relief at this. "Je suis très bon monsieur, sauf que je suis allé explorer et erré trop loin du camping de mon propriétaire. Je ne voulais pas causer des ennuis à vos amis si vous pourrait aider à mener moi s'il vous plaît? Nous installons notre campement près de ce qui semble être une vieille cabane de toutes sortes et je sais qu'il ne voulait pas quitter pour la maison ce soir sans moi. Il m'aime beaucoup."

"Oh, je sais où il est! Ce n'est pas si loin d'ici alors suivez-moi!"

And with that he led her towards the abandoned twoleg nest and she soon saw the campsite she was looking for. She thanked him and dashed back to where a human seemed relieved to have her safe and sound with the campers again as he picked her up into a hug.

Berrynose gave a sour look to Maplestreak when the patrol caught up. "What the heck was that language you and that kittypet were speaking?"

"It's called French, Berrynose," he replied, ignoring the harsh tone in the cream warrior's meow. "That kittypet couldn't understand you all because she only knew French. The language we speak is what the twolegs would call English and it would be foreign to her. My papa Francis taught me French while I was still a kit just in case I needed to use it and I'm thankful that he did."

"So she was basically lost?" Sandstorm asked with interest and he nodded as he noticed the twolegs were packing up and the kittypet was safely in her carrier while he replied, "And she also said that they would be leaving about now so we managed to get her back in time."

A nearby truck, or monster as the Clan cats put it, was soon filled up with the gear and campers and drove away quickly before the evening became still and the patrol went back to camp.

Leafpool soon reported what happened to her sister and Bramblestar. "If it wasn't for Maplestreak's translation skills, that poor kittypet would've stayed lost or we would have her twoleg causing us trouble if he started to look for her."

"I see," she said with her green eyes glowing with interest as she turned to Maplestreak. "And where did you learn this…French again?"

"From my Papa Francis who is a French cat himself," he replied sheepishly. "He taught me many things as a kit before I soon had to grow up with Arthur and my twin Alfred. It's a bit complicated."

*I hope they won't ask about that…* he prayed silently as Bramblestar nodded in satisfaction. "At least you managed to prevent some trouble. I also spoke with Lionblaze and he spoke proudly of your battle skill. I agreed to help with improving it sometime in the future. Now it's getting late and you must be tired, Maplestreak."

Maplestreak responded with a stifled yawn and nodded before going towards his nest when dismissed. He saw the other three apprentices already curled up into their nests asleep from the day's training. He soon took off his pendant and followed suit as he went off to dream.

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"Huh?" Maplestreak said as he looked around. "Where am I?"

Instead of StarClan's gentle grove, he found himself in a near black mixed forest. There was no light, nor moon, nor stars. Only a dark mist surrounded him and the trees, giving a cold feeling of loneliness around him.

"Is this…the Dark Forest?" he asked as he took a careful battle stance, keeping alert to what may come out of the shadows.

A black blur soon tried to strike him but he kept his ground then dodged it at the last second. Facing his attacker, he saw that it was a black-grey tom with blue eyes that looked just like Crowfeather! But unlike Crowfeather and the cats of StarClan, this tom had a dark aura around him and his eyes showed no light whatsoever so he assumed that this tom was a Dark Forest Cat.

"Well, well, well…" the tom spoke in a voice that sounded similar to the WindClan warrior with a smirk, "It seems that you're not as mouse-brained as we thought. You do seem to have some battle experience after all Maplestreak."

His fur bristled at the tom's tone when he said his Warrior Name. "Are you Breezepelt, Crowfeather's other son?"

Breezepelt's smirk soon was replaced with a scowl. "So what if I am? That piece of fox-dung showed no love for me and for what?! A stupid ThunderClan medicine cat who is now a warrior! Now even my own mother shows no grief for me and gave it all to Hollyleaf!"

"That's because you showed no remorse for your actions!" Maplestreak protested. "She did and was willing to prove it by sacrificing her life for ThunderClan!"

"Oh that's rich coming from a cat who's really a Nation called Canada!"

He soon looked stunned for a brief moment. "How'd you know?"

"Hawkfrost was spying during the time you were explaining to Jayfeather. We figured we could try to use it to our advantage…"

"That's going to be impossible…" Canada soon said calmly though he still felt disturbed by this. "I only explained the general information on our kind to him. There's many more secrets to it than what I said."

That didn't seem to satisfy Breezepelt as he soon sprung into an attack, only to be knocked away by a black blur of star shine; his half-sister Hollyleaf!

"You're never going to control this one!" she spat out as he go up and glared at her. "As long as Firestar and I have something to say about it!"

"Says the one who killed one of her own Clan to keep a secret safe!" he spat back and Canada looked at her in confusion.

She sighed. "I killed this tom named Ashfur because he found out about Squirrelflight's secret about us when he was looking to get back at her for breaking his heart. The Clan still doesn't know since my brothers told them it was a rogue that did it after I exiled myself as punishment. When I went to StarClan, he forgave me and I earned the right to be your Guardian."

"And I can see you're doing a good job, da?" a familiar voice sounded as a large pale, platinum-blonde cat wearing a scarf came up from behind Canada with an all-too familiar smile that suddenly unnerved Breezepelt.

"Russia!" Canada exclaimed in relief then turned to the shaking warrior with a smirk. "This Dark Forest Cat was hoping to control me."

As if to respond, Russia soon exhumed a dark aura with his violet eyes going dark and gave out his usual chant of "kol, kol, kol". This made Breezepelt jump high in the air with a scream and ran back deep into the forest with his tail between his legs. Canada and Hollyleaf, after she got over her initial fear from the Russian aura, was soon laughing at the events, with her on back and clutching at her belly.

"I think that's the last of that one for a while, da comrade?" Russia soon said and the golden tom nodded as he followed his friends back to StarClan's grove.

When he arrived, he was quickly caught up in a hug by an all too familiar French cat who was almost practically in tears. "Oh mon petit Canada! We were so worried when you didn't arrive so Yao suggested zhat Ivan went with 'Ollyleaf to find you! You weren't 'urt at all by any of zem, were you?"

"Non papa, Breezepelt missed," he replied as a dark furred Chinese cat with very dark brown eyes looked him over just in case. "But I bring some bad news."

"What is it aru?" China asked as he looked up in concern.

"They know about me being a Nation. It turns out that another Dark Forest Cat, Hawkfrost, was spying on the day I was explaining the general information to Jayfeather but it was easy to tell that they didn't understand everything so it seems we have an advantage still. Although he did say something that disturbs me…he sais that they would try to put it to their advantage."

"That would be impossible aru." the older tom replied with all the wisdom of his millennia of life showing in his eyes and placing his tail on the younger's shoulder in comfort. "Nobody unless it's our bosses can really take advantage of us. We are far stronger than they can ever comprehend. Keep this in mind young one for it will give you strength in your mission.

Canada looked at the elder in gratitude…but then a shrill cry sounded in the air! "That's Millie! Something's wrong! I have to go!"

"Zhen go! And good luck!" France said and he nodded as he began to wake up.

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He quickly got on his pendant and left the den to see the camp was in full activity, despite it still being night time and clouds were covering the near-full moon. He saw Millie near the Nursery with two other queens, Greystripe, and her three other kits trying to comfort her…but he saw no sign of Swallowkit!

He stopped Dustpelt as he ran by to check the apprentice's den. "What happened?"

"Swallowkit's missing so the entire camp was ordered to look for her," the dark brown tom explained. "Was she in the apprentices' den by any chance?"

Maplestreak shook his head no, then went into the Nursery to see if he could pick up anything when a dark scent struck his nose! It was unfamiliar but it did carry the scent of a Dark Forest Cat like Breezepelt! Wasting no time, he used his nose and dashed out of camp as a patrol led by Lionblaze returned but he took no noticed to the confused looks on their faces. He obviously was more worried about the kit's fate!

The scent trail led him a little ways past the WindClan border but it didn't take him long to find them since he heard her shout in fear, "Let me go! Please! I want my mama!"

A dark chuckle was heard. "Oh don't worry little kit…you'll be an excellent message to ThunderClan…and to StarClan!"

He immediately couldn't take it anymore and soon struck hard and fast at the Dark Forest Cat, pinning him down and freeing Swallowkit who took shelter into a hollow log. He saw this cat was almost similar to Bramblestar except his eyes were an icy blue and his pelt was slightly lighter shade of brown as well as he had a beige muzzle and belly. He was very strong too as he kicked him off and slashed at his left front leg, but Maplestreak stood his ground and ploughed into him hard to the ground, knocking the wind out of him.

He took the chance to pin down his enemy again and glare into those icy, darkness-filled eyes. "Who are you?! What did you want with Swallowkit?!"

The dark tom glared back. "Oh we needed her to be a message from us. And as for who I am, you may call me Hawkfrost!"

Maplestreak gasped then slashed at his face in anger, giving him a scar across his nose that looked like his father's from the stories he had heard from Greystripe. "Take that scar as a message from me. Tell your father Tigerstar that he started a battle with a cat he can never defeat."

Hawkfrost was shocked then was let up so he could run at this cat's resolve before disappearing into a black mist that soon faded. Once he was gone, Maplestreak endured the pain in his leg as he went to the log where Swallowkit was hiding. She was seen curled up into a ball with her ears covered and was shaking in fear. When she looked up and saw the golden tom, she bolted into his chest and started to cry in relief.

"Oh Maplestreak I'm glad you came!" she wailed. "I was asleep in my nest next to mama when I felt someone pick me up! The next thing I new I was pinned down with that scary tom looking down at me like I was prey! I was so scared! He wanted me to be a message or something and…a-and…"

"Hush now Swallowkit," he replied gently as he soon began to lick her to calm her down like he'd seen many mother cats do so. "You're safe now. I scared him away so you don't have to worry about him."

"But who was that cat?!" she squeaked as she looked up at him in confusion. "He looks like he could be related to Bramblestar!"

"His name was Hawkfrost," he replied with a sigh. "He's Bramblestar's half-brother from RiverClan that was too much like their father and it sent him to the Dark Forest when he died. I left him a message to be passed onto Tigerstar to say I won't give up so there's no need to worry."

She was about to reply when she soon gasped at something behind him. He whipped around protectively and kept her close with her tail.

Sitting a few fox-lengths away from them was a black tom with violet eyes and a faded black aura.

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Author's Notes

And I left it at a cliffhanger but don't worry! Chapter 6 is being written as we speak!

Also I added in a little more French in here other than the small bits by France himself so here's the translations to make it easier:

Canada: Good evening miss. How are you?

Kittypet: I am very good sir, except I went exploring and wandered too far from my owner's campsite. I didn't mean to cause trouble for your friends so could you help lead me back please? We set up camp near what seems to be an old shack of sorts and I know he wouldn't leave for home tonight without me. He loves me very much.

Canada: Oh I know where it is! It's not all that far from here so follow me!

As many of you all know, French and English are the two national languages here in Canada. The Warrior cats didn't know that (and still don't know that their "Maplestreak" is Canada except for Jayfeather of course) so I decided to add a little extra something here to continue the day's training after Canada outmatched his "mentor" in a couple of mock fights. (I figured Canada as a cat would be no different from him as a Nation; tricky and strong).

We well meet that kittypet again later on and if anyone wonders what her name is, I decided on the name Juliet. You'll know why in a later chapter.

But now we get to the main action of the story that I was SO excited to write!

The Dark Forest Cats do know about Canada's secret thanks to Hawkfrost as you all know from Chapter three. So Breezepelt decided to have dibs on trying to torment or control Canada without much luck. Especially due to the fact of three things:

A. Canada has a strong will and CAN'T be controlled easily

B. He now knows his half-sister Hollyleaf is protecting him

C. Canada's got friends in high and low places, hence the appearance of Russia.

Plus it really can't be a Hetalia fic with Russia without the big guy going "kol, kol, kol" so I added it in for humour's sake.

And things get real intense with Hawkfrost kit-napping Swallowkit and attempting to kill her, then this mystery cat...leading me to end this chapter off in a cliffhanger. (Of which, once again, I do apologize)

Now for the Nation's names of this chapter:

Russia - Ivan Braginski

China - Wang Yao (Wang is the last name btw. A lot of people in east Asia has the family names first unlike us western people.)

Enjoy and review!