Red Maple

chapter 3: sunningrocks battle

MAPLESHADE YOWLED ANGRILY and slashed Splashfoot, a RiverClan tom with pale grey fur across the face. He howled in pain and swiped a paw of her, but missed and stumbled forward, blood dripping into his vision. Mapleshade leapt and bit down on his back paw, and with a screech, he jumped back before leaping forward.

Mapleshade dodged, rolling to the side before immediately leaping on top of the dazed down and pushing down with unsheathed claws. He struggled to get out of her grasp and with a nip to his ear, she let him go, and he raced away toward the river with a wail.

The battle raged on around her. She saw Birchface battling the RiverClan deputy, Spiketail, and his apprentice, Flowerpaw, fighting off Volepaw, a brown tom. Beetail was pinning down Eeltail, grey-and-black tabby she-cat, and Frecklewish slashing at Milkfur, a white she-cat. Mapleshade continued scanning the battle and her eyes widened when she saw her former mate, Appledusk, leaping toward Birchface with a snarl.

But before she could see anything further, she was knocked away and pinned down on her back. She looked up to see a familiar reddish-brown tabby she-cat, glaring down at her with fierce amber eyes.

"You!" Reedshine hissed angrily. "It's all your fault!"

Mapleshade kicked her away with her back legs and the she-cat jumped back with a pained hiss. "What are you talking about?" Mapleshade growled and Reedshine bristled.

"Appledusk!" Reedshine snarled. "That's what. He's rejected our kits because of you!" She leapt at Mapleshade and slashed at her ears. "He doesn't want my precious kits that we made together because he loves you."

Mapleshade was shocked. They had kits? Why was Reedshine here in battle instead of the nursery with her precious bundles?

"Reedshine," Mapleshade began. "I once thought I loved Appledusk, and that I would do anything to keep us together. But things have changed. I realised I didn't love him and that what I was doing was going to build conflict and destroy our lives. I also realised that he wasn't a good mate and that the whole time he was with me he had also been with you."
As she spoke, Reedshine's eyes softened and changed from anger to pain, anger and confliction.

"I realised that when I went to Sunningrocks to tell him I didn't want to be his mate anymore, I wanted to get out of that relationship before I made the mistake of having his kits. But I saw him with you, and I already knew the answer."

Reedshine had relaxed her muscles by now, and as Mapleshade felt her retreat from her pinned form, Reedshine let out a pained screech.

With wide eyes, she watched as Reedshine was forcefully dragged away from her and torn apart by sharp silver claws and long sharp fangs. Reddish-brown fur, blood, flesh and even bone flung in all directions as a familiar-looking tom ravaged her body. Mapleshade whimpered, her eyes like saucers as some of Reedshine's flesh splattered on her cheek and fell down at her paws.

She looked down and realised it wasn't a chunk of flesh but Reedshine's tail! The cat that she feared the most had torn apart Reedshine so gruesomely, that her limbs were scattered around the battlefield. Mapleshade looked around to see that all the ThunderClan and RiverClan cats were running down the river, looking at something in the water.

Suddenly, there was a small pinch in her scruff and she squealed in fear and surprise when she was roughly dragged away by Redriver. As she was, she saw the bloodied, torn apart body of Reedshine getting smaller and smaller until the trees and undergrowth blocked her view.

Mapleshade didn't know how long Redriver had been dragging her for, but she gasped when he let go and she flopped to the ground like a terrified piece of fresh kill. She looked around and noticed she was right near Fourtrees in WindClan territory.