Post by Deleted on Jun 16, 2018 2:54:57 GMT -5
Occurs sometime after Fernpaw becomes a warrior.
The cold seems to grow in my soul, it's consuming me.Confused, and I'm losing myself in the storm.
The rain fell in sheets almost too thick to see through. Beside him, Ashflight raised her voice to be heard over the downpour, “Rushwhisker, let's go back! We're not going to find anything in this!”
Downpour or no, there were still hungry mouths that needed feeding. He shook his head, ears flat against the water washing over him, “We have to take something back! It isn't like the fish mind the rain!”
“We're both going to catch sick from this!” Ashflight hissed, but she didn't turn back.
He knew she was just sour because she wasn't the greatest fisher, and her preferred prey was all tucked up in their nests, “Come on. Since we're already wet, we might as well practice your fish diving.”
She snorted indignantly as they came to the river. He paused, watched the churning waters for a moment. Ashflight splashed in beside him, ears angled forward, “Do you hear that? Some cat's in trouble. Do you see them?” She cast her gaze out over the swollen river. “There! Is... it's Swanfeather!” Without another word, Ashflight plunged into the river.
“Ashflight, wait!” The river rushed past, roiling and angry from the downpour, “Come back!” The river was too strong. He tried to lunge after her, to catch her before the river swept her up too. But he found he couldn't follow her. His paws had sunk into the river's sandy bottom, and no matter how hard he pulled, he could not free himself. He could only watch as she reached Swanfeather, and both she-cats disappeared beneath the surface. No, no!
“Ashflight!” He tried to leap for her, but his paws were still stuck in place. His heart pounded in his chest as lightning split the sky and thunder roared overhead, “ASHFLIGHT!” I can't, I can't lose her! No, StarClan, no! You can't have her! “ASHFLIGHT!!!”
He couldn't move. He couldn't do anything. Suddenly the rain dissipated, the clouds cleared, the river calmed, and a cat broke the surface, paddling strongly toward him. Swanfeather pulled herself from the water in front of him and his fur bristled, “Where is she?”
“Who?” Swanfeather seemed not to know who he was talking about.
“Ashflight!” he spat at her, his paws still rooted, “Where is she!? What have you done to her!?”
Swanfeather flicked her tail dismissively, “Oh, Rushwhisker. So many cats have died for me, you expect me to remember them all? She wasn't the first, and she won't be the last.” The black pointed she-cat padded past him then, and was gone.
“Swanfeather!” he snarled, fury, agony, in that single cry.
Rushwhisker woke with a start, scrabbling in his nest.
“Rushwhisker...?” Ashflight's sleepy murmur had his head jerking up, around to look at her with wide eyes. She was alive. She was alive. It was a dream. He leaned over to press his nose into her fur, as if to make sure she was real. “Fishbrain...,” she murmured and yawned, laying her head back down, “Quit being so loud....”
“... Sorry,” he breathed, his chest heaving as the panic slowly subsided. He pushed from his nest and stepped carefully but quickly around his denmates and out into camp, taking in a deep, shaky breath. His gaze caught on the medicine den across the clearing and the fur along his spine rose uneasily. The source of so much darkness and death lay within that den, claiming the role of a healer when all she did was destroy everything she touched. His tail lashed behind him angrily. And the rest of the Clan did nothing. RainClan truly was tainted, lost, to allow such a monster to exist in their ranks after all she'd done. She'd proven over and over that she couldn't be trusted, that hate and violence and death followed wherever she went.
He had thought they were free of her. She was supposed to perish as an honorless rogue, a bad memory in the history of RainClan. Yet somehow she had returned, been invited back into the Clan. There was something wrong, so very wrong. She should never have come back. Should never have been allowed to come back. They should have killed her. His claws flexed into the earth as a certainty settled over him. Swanfeather was cursed by StarClan for abusing her power as a medicine cat. She was meant to heal, but she only brought suffering to those around her. It seemed just like something StarClan would do.
And RainClan would not be free of it until she was dead.
Enemies surround me but the worst appear as friends.
Liars and pretenders only seek to reach their ends.
Liars and pretenders only seek to reach their ends.
Hellion (Swanfeather nightmares \o/)