A.N.: We meet again. You wouldn’t happen to know what you had for dinner last Thursday, do you? Let’s get going.
IV: Border Patrol
Ashfoot inhaled deeply as the wind swept through her fur, tumbling and rolling across the landscape. It was perfect for waking up to when you were on the dawn patrol. Crowfeather, Breezepelt, and Heathertail made up the rest of the group, which had just arrived at the ThunderClan border.
As the deputy as about to renew the scent markers, she noticed a rabbit spring out of a clump of gorse and dash off across the grass, almost straight at them. Breezepelt was after it in a heartbeat, unsheathed claws digging into the turf. The rabbit dashed across the stream that marked the border, and Breezepelt was right behind it. Leaping the stream in a single bound, he sank his teeth into the prey’s neck.
The WindClan deputy glared at him as he dragged the rabbit back to them. “Are you mouse-brained? Do you have any idea what would have happened if a ThunderClan patrol caught you hunting in their territory?”
The black warrior set down his rabbit and glared right back, rebellion flashing in his eyes. “So? The borders are so faint I can barely smell them! It’s not my fault if that group of kittypets and half-breeds can’t bother to mark their borders once in a while.”
Heathertail stretched open her jaws and scented the air. True, the markers were faint. It seemed that ThunderClan hadn’t been this way in days. Ashfoot spoke again, gazing off into the trees.
“Something must be wrong. ThunderClan is usually right on top of things. We should report this to Onestar.”
Breezepelt ignored her and sunk his teeth into the rabbit, talking around it. “Why should we? It’s not our problem. I’m going back to camp.”
He disappeared over the crest of a hill, tail twitching as he went. Crowfeather failed to rebuke his son, nor did he come to his defense. He simply gazed off into ThunderClan territory with a far-away look in his eyes. Heathertail couldn’t help but feel a pang of sympathy for him. The WindClan warrior seemed more depressed and distant then ever, after Hollyleaf had revealed his secret at the Gathering.
No cat deserved to go through that. She remembered how she felt after Lionblaze said they couldn’t see each other anymore. How she still longed to see him... Heathertail shook her head to clear it. No! He doesn’t care about you! He’d rather be a warrior, remember?
But she couldn’t get the tom out of her head, then a voice broke out in the silence.
“Halt!”
Three cats the golden she-cat hadn’t seen before emerged from the undergrowth on the ThunderClan side. Their fur was matted and they smelled terrible, like something rotting.
The cats stayed on their side of the border, but looked ready for confrontation. The leading tom glared at the WindClan patrol, “what are you doing so close to our territory? Speak, now!”
Heathertail held back a retort as Ashfoot spoke, “We...need to speak to Firestar.”
“Hollystar is busy at the moment. I suggest you stay away from out territory if you want to stay in one piece.”
The rogue cats turned around and stalked off, vanishing into the trees. Crowfeather had fixed his eyes on something up in a nearby elm. He nudged the two she-cats beside him.
“Look, is that a...skull?”
The white skull was hanging from a tree several fox-lengths , a piece of vine looped through the empty eye sockets. The top of the had a large crack in the top, as if had been violently ripped open. Heathertail’s stomach lurched, and she fought against the bile that rose in the back of her throat.
“Come on,” Ashfoot mewed quietly. “We need to report this to Onestar.”
Brightheart dug her claws into the dirt and hissed in frustration, “I can’t believe he’s doing this!”
It was well past Sunhigh, and Hollystar’s rogues weren’t doing anything very constructive. Laying about and eating seemed to be their main concerns. Hollystar at the base of the Highledge, calmly surveying the cat as he approached. The warriors hadn’t been allowed out of the den, and it had been several days since any of them had eaten.
Finally, Berrynose couldn’t take it anymore. He had calmly stated that he wanted to join with Hollystar, and anyone who wished to follow him was welcome. Nobody else did, however, and the cream-colored tom went alone.
Hawk and Toadwart got up to intercept him, but Hollystar waved them back. Her emerald eyes watched as Berrynose got close, then she spoke. “Ah, Berrynose, what a pleasant surprise. How may I aid you on this fine day?”
Berrynose stared at the vole she was eating before blurting out. “I’m starving! I’ll do anything you want!”
Hollystar looked him up and down carefully, victory glittering her gaze. She pushed the half-eaten vole forward, just into reach of the hungry warrior. Her gaze then flickered to her pelt. The blood streaks were dry and beginning to peel off, and that wouldn’t do at all.
“Prove to me that you’re loyal. I want you to cut yourself.”
Berrynose looked surprised, then unsheathed his claws and placed one forepaw on his chest. At an encouraging nod from Hollystar, he slashed downward. Blood stained his creamy pelt, turning it crimson. Twitching and hissing in pain, his amber gaze turned back to Hollystar.
The dark she-cat reached forward, dipping her paws in the open wound. Ignoring Berrynose’s hiss of agony, she reapplied the blood streaks to her fur. Then she pushed the vole to Berrynose, who began to gulp it down greedily, ignoring the blood still dripping from the gash on his chest.
Sandstorm watched all this from beside Brightheart, her narrowed eyes searing into the tom’s back. “That traitor.” Anger and disbelief kept her from speaking anymore. This was unlike Berrynose! How long before others joined him, before they started turning on each other?
Barkface sat on the grass, waiting quietly for the other medicine cats. His apprentice, Kestrelpaw, waited beside him. The full moon was already high in the sky, where were the other medicine cats? As the moon continued to move across the sky, Mothwing and Willowshine emerged from the direction of RiverClan territory, traveling through WindClan territory.
“Sorry we’re late! Beetlekit had an infected cut, I wanted to make sure we treated it before we left.” Mothwing mewed.
Barkface got to his paws, “let’s get going, we’re wasting moonlight.”
“What about Littlecloud, Flamepaw, Leafpool and Jayfeather?” Mothwing meowed.
Barkface flicked his tail, “they’ll catch up. Let’s get going.”
Mothwing brought up the rear, lost in thought. It was a pretty far walk just to get a good night’s sleep, but there was no way Leopardstar would let her stay a medicine cat if she found out that Mothwing didn’t believe in StarClan.
Climbing up the slope that would lead back down to the Moonpool, Barkface reached the rim of the hollow first, and looked down expecting to see the starlight filled water that would allow him and the other medicine cats to speak with their warrior ancestors. He stopped, frozen in place.
The path down to the Moonpool was scarlet, blood glistening in the moonlight. The decapitated bodies of Brambleclaw and Firestar floated in the water, choking it with blood. The waterfall was just a trickle of red, clogged with the headless body of a kit Barkface couldn’t recognize.
The bodies of Littlecloud and Flamepaw rested on the edge of the moonpool, throats cut, bleeding freely into the sacred water. A sickening stench of gore and death wafted up from the hollow.
“W...who could have done this?” Mothwing let out in a hoarse whisper.
Barkface shook his head to focus his thoughts. The dawn patrol had reported to Onestar that the ThunderClan border markers were very faint. They had also reported an encounter with a group of rogues. Onestar hadn’t see the need to send a patrol into ThunderClan territory for that. The skull that they had supposedly seen hanging from a tree branch wasn't there, he had gone to see it for himself.
He fixed his gaze on the dead ShadowClan cats.
“They must have come through ThunderClan territory,” he murmured. He turned to the RiverClan cats beside him, “we can’t share tongues with StarClan tonight. We need to report this to our leaders.”
With unspoken agreement, they began to walk down away from the carnage. After some silence, they started to turn away from ThunderClan territory and toward the WindClan camp.
“Wait!”
The medicine cats turned to see Honeyfern, fur matted with fear in her eyes, crouching in the shadows on the ThunderClan side of the stream.
“Honeyfern? What happened to the Moonpool? What’s going on?” Barkface said quietly.
“I don’t have much time to explain! Listen, Hollyleaf is back, and she’s tearing ThunderClan apart. She’s already murdered several cats, the rest are going to follow if we don’t get some help.”
Barkface nodded, trying to remain calm despite the new information that was spinning inside his head. “We’ll tell out leaders immediately. Come with us, we’ll get you to safety.”
The light brown she-cat shook her head and started to back away, “I can’t. The others will be punished if I’m suddenly missing. Have a patrol meet me here at dawn. I’ll try and sneak away to guide them.”
The medicine cats watched as Honeyfern turned and ran away as quickly as she could, before the darkness of the night swallowed her completely.
A.N.: I made a video for Hollystar on YouTube to Die my Darling by Metallica. Check it out, after you review! I know this chapter wasn’t as great as the last few, I’ll try to make the next one better.