Stormheart's Rebellion

Chapter 15

(Cat above is Marshpaw)
Somebody gasped. Stormpaw lept to her paws as Strongclaw and Badgerheart threw themselves at the two elders.

Tigerfang hissed as Strongclaw dug her claws into his grey pelt. He swatted at her blindly, but missed.

Swift as a LeopardClan warrior, and as fierce as TigerClan, the brown tabby sank her teeth into Tigerfang's neck. She shook Tigerfang back and forth, before dropping him to the ground, his blind eyes frozen open.

Fawnfur was trying to get away from Badgerheart, but he caught the old she-cat across the face. She shrieked and fell back, holding a paw to her face.

Stormpaw felt anger boil up inside her. She pushed past Dawnstorm and was about to break out of the crowd when she felt jaws grab her scruff and yank her back.

It was Marshpaw. The ginger tabby stared at her coldly. "Do not interfere."

"Flamestar just ordered two elders to be killed. You think I'm going to sit on my tail and do nothing!" Stormpaw hissed.

Marshpaw curled his lip, "Flamestar gave an order. Who cares if two useless cats die?"

Stormpaw cringed at his sudden cruelty. She looked into his yellow eyes and winced at their bitterness. "How can you say that Marshpaw? That isn't you."

He blinked but otherwise didn't change his expression. Instead, he stiffly turned away and padded towards the Highledge, and to Stormpaw's astonishment, joined his mentor at the top. To Stormpaw's horror, she couldn't even see the difference between the two toms. They both were Flamestar. Stornpaw felt a jolt of awful realization. The prophecy, The approaching flames can only be stopped by the rising thunder. Marshpaw and Flamestar must be the flames! But that meant Stormpaw was the rising thunder.

Badgerheart and Strongclaw, both streaked with blood, looked up at Flamestar with Fawnfur, heavily wounded and cowering, at their paws.

Flamestar looked down at Fawnfur distastefully, his tail tip twitching. "Fine, spare her. She has learned not to mess with us."

He looked over at Marshpaw, "You go deal with Tigerfang's body."

Marshpaw nodded and leaped down the Highledge, his muscles rippling beneath his short ginger pelt.

Stormpaw looked down at her paws, the white fur already smeared with dust from the battlefield. If she was thunder, that was only part of a storm. I need others, Nettlefoot maybe, and the rogues other than Badgerheart and Strongclaw. Flamestar will drive this clan into the ground, and that is why we must fight back.

She needs a rebellion.

***
Gorsepelt waved her tail in greeting as Foxpaw padded over to her. The freezing moor winds had been blocked by the huge slate boulders, much to Foxpaw's relief.

Two moons had passed since Tigerfang had been killed under Flamestar's order. Fawnfur was forced to hunt for herself until the next moon, and anyone caught giving her prey would be given the same punishment. The wound on the elder's face had healed to a deep scar.

Sprucefoot had given birth to two healthy kits. The first was a tom, Boulderkit, who had dark grey fur and had his mother's short fur. The second was Brightkit, a long haired white she-cat who looked nearly exactly like her father, Whitestrike.

Flamestar and Featherwing had become mates, much to Foxpaw's silent dissension. The brown she-cat had never been very kind to Foxpaw, nor her littermates and Flamestar of course was cruel and much older than Featherwing.

Stormpaw and Marshpaw looked like warriors with their size, and Foxpaw began to wonder what would happen if they became warriors before she got her medicine cat name. Thistlethorn would remark once in a while that she would receive her title by the third half-moon. But with Flamestar's laws, who knows what could happen?

Stormpaw had been acting weird lately. She was coming back late at night, sometimes covered in dust and plants. The next day, Foxpaw would ask her what she was doing at night, the brown and white tabby would always brush it off, saying it was apprentice stuff. Foxpaw's ears flattened, What are you hiding from me sister?

Foxpaw asked, "Are you dead?"

The freckled she-cat laughed dryly. "Of course I am. I was alive far before your elder's elder's were kits in StarClan."

"Did you know Mountainstar?" the medicine cat apprentice asked. Maybe she used to be a famous, glorious cat from long ago.

Gorsepelt's amber eyes narrowed. She looked down at the slate beneath her paws. "No...no I did not."

With one impressive leap, she landed silently on the ground beside Foxpaw. Her battered claws scraped at the ground. She spoke again, her voice slightly quivering, "This place holds memories." Her eyes grew dark, "Very dark memories."

Foxpaw suddenly felt uncomfortable. She took a step back. "What happened here?"

Gorsepelt bared her teeth and her long tail lashed. "I was betrayed by everyone!" she snarled venomously.

With these words, Gorsepelt disappeared into the air like dust. Foxpaw stood, shocked. That...cat was no StarClan resident! She is too hateful for their ranks. She glanced at the silverey rocks around her, and the faint scent of MoorClan border patrols. Something haunts here, and I don't think I want to know what.

***

Lostpaw looked into the forest beyond IceClan camp. She sighed and looked down at her paws, the longing to go hunting in the pines was growing, and the brown tabby was getting sick of Flamestar's threats.

Her ears had been torn off when she was just barely an apprentice, and her was cruelly changed to Lostpaw because of her disability.

IceClan was in a pitiful state, the ones who has survived the awful bout of greencough and crowfood looked like ragged pelts draped over bones.

Flamestar allowed no IceClan cat to leave camp, even to make dirt, after MountainClan had defeated them in battle. Meager amounts of rotting prey were given to them, just enough to keep them alive and any cat caught outside of camp was killed by a MountainClan cat, who always seemed to be lurking in the undergrowth.

Brightfrost and Pebblefur had already been killed by MountainClan cats. Snowpelt was killed by some big black and white tom from MountainClan because she hasn't been able to defend herself. Longfang had died from greencough a moon later.

Her stomach growled, but Lostpaw did nothing to ease it. Most of the prey went towards the queens and the remaining elder's anyway.

Lostpaw's mentor, Cinderface, sometimes spoke about rebelling against MountainClan.

"Flamestar can't watch us forever Sunwing!" he whispered once, when Lostpaw was pretending to sleep.

The orange and white she-cat sighed, "What does he even want from us Cinderface? IceClan wasn't going to threaten him.

Cinderface blinked and narrowed his blue eyes, "He wants us to die out in our camp. It's in my power that he doesn't succeed with this."

"You're not Foxstar or Wolfpath mouse-brain," Sunwing lashed out bitterly. She got to her paws, I'm going to sleep so I might live another day in this cursed camp."

Lostpaw's tail tip twitched as looked up at the sky. Snow clouds dotted the cold blue, bringing with them great storms of ice and snow. Great. Another misfortune.

Owlkit, one of Dustdapple's kits mewled hungrily. The mottled brown she-cat grunted and mewed shakily, "Can't....can't you get your...own...prey Owlkit?"

"My tummy hurts!" Owlkit mewed, looking at his skinny brown and white belly. "Those smelly birds make my belly hurt whenever I eat them."

Dustdapple nodded and got to her paws. Lostpaw wanted to help the frail queen, but she could hardly walk herself. Lostpaw felt a spike of bitterness, How can you let this happen StarClan!