Blood Reign

For The Love Of Peaches

Shivering, a freezing water droplet the size of my paw trickles down my spine and onto the muddy, red clay ground. Even the sky, clouded with such dark sorrow, is crying over my beloved mother's death. As if the sky itself is looking for justice, lightning strikes and a large, flaming orange tabby tom is looming over me. Piercing emerald eyes without a hint of kindness glare into my soul. "Hello, my Queen." He purrs into my ear as I flinch.
"King Oak... Nice to know you came out to mourn the death of my mother even as she wasn't one of yours."
"I wouldn't miss it for the world! You, my Queen, mean everything to me." He purrs louder as his red orange fur threatens to suffocate me.
"I'm not your Queen!" I hiss, ramming my shoulder forth into his chest while my claws sink into the flesh of his paw. With complete suprise in his eyes, he falls to the ground.
       "Why you little!" He puffs up and starts to stand. A soaking wet, white cloud of fur comes between us.
"Is there a problem here?" The King of my gang bellows while looking down at Oak.
"Why hello Birch, of course not. Peaches and I where just having a little chat. I'll be going now. I believe I hear my brother calling." He stands and trots off into the trees, nodding to me as he goes. Oak looks down at me with kind eyes. "I'm sorry for your loss. Your mother was a great woman and mother. My brother, your father, thought the world of her. He would love to be here today but he is.... Busy."
"Looking for her killers..." I add, starting to understand.
He nods and looks up, suddenly alert to a petite crimson and brown tabby female with brown eyes. She motions for him to come say a few words. He strides off to meet her, his Queen.
         Even through the rain I see a frail dusty figure at the entrance to the old, faded red, barn practically falling apart with age. Nods for me to come in out of the rain. I slink, in out of the rain, collapsing next to him, "The kits?", I ask through a shaky voice.
"Asleep.... My brother gave you a hard time again didn't he?" Dusty tom questions with concern in his eyes.
"King Oak delt with him. Thank you for watching the kits. I don't know what I'll do with mother gone. The responsibility for raising my sister's falls on me, I suppose."
    The dusty tom starts grooming the water out of my fur. "I'll always be here to help."
"Thank you Leaf. I trust you above everyone... Maybe eventually things will be different."
"If we were in the same gang or was stronger you would be mine." He mews with sorrow in his voice.
"What if things can be different? I petitioned to Birch to let you join our gang. He is probably discussing it with Queen Firecracker as we speak."
"You will be my wife, Peaches." Leaf purrs as he settles down beside me, still grooming the last bit of water from my fur. Exhausted we both drift to sleep purring like, a stampede of horses stomping the ground, glad to have our stolen moment.
         I wake to the shrill scream of claws against metal. Flinching, Leaf is still fast asleep at my side. The screach goes off again. Looking around, the source of the alarm is located: a tall, black, fluffy female  looking down at us triumphantly from the loft lifting, her paws off the metal poll of foundation. With silver eyes full of hate, she cackles. "Oh Peaches, Peaches, Peaches.... What have you done? King Oak will be infuriated that his future Queen is spending so much time with his brother. It would be a shame if someone were to.... Tell him!" She jumps down the latter on the other side and takes off into the dark green shrubs.
"Raven! I'll never be his Queen and neither will you!" I yell, knowing she thinks Oak will kill me for this and finally accept her as his Queen. She would do anything for power.
    Gingerly nudging Leaf awake, explaining what has happened. Fear fills his eyes as he urges me to go to Birch for help. "Go get Birch Oak fears him. I'm not fast enough. Your sisters are hidden. Oak will kill us!" The red mud slings up from my paws in all directions as I bolt off twords the abandoned human den my people call home. I practically run into Queen Firecracker, entering skidding to a halt on the slippery white rock. She looks down at me and in her usual skeptical tone asks "Peaches, what has got you in a hurry?" Out of breath I only manage to get out, "Raven, telling, Oak, Leaf and I." Firecracker suddenly becomes stiff then dissapers through the old whole in the wall softened with time. Moments later Birch barrels past and out the door with determination in his golden eyes. Before I can catch my breath a small white and grey ball of fluff crashes into me. "Cricket, what is it?" I ask my shivering little sister whom is looking up at me with tear filled yellow eyes. "It's Oak! He has been poisoning Leaf. He is going to kill him while he is weak!" She screams as a white and brown patched, sickly, Chirp, tries to comfort her.
       Fear pierces my heart like freezing water in winter. Leaf! A thousand thoughts are stampeding through my head as I fly to the barn, going so fast as to not feel the ground. Leaf is still on the pile of hay we slept on the night before but is now hunched over coughing up blood. "Leaf, your brother has been poisoning you! Where is he?" I look around frantically, waiting for the attack.
"Go-in af-ter Cri-" Leaf manages to get out before falling into a fit of coughing. Willow, Leaf's tan tabby sister, walks in. "I've got him go find-" She is cut off by the sharp cry of a cat being mauled.
   "Come out, come out wherever you are! I know you are in there Peaches. Come get your wimpy sister." You can hear the insanity in his voice as he chuckles. Another sharp squeal echoes through the vally. I round the corner to see Oak standing with a huge, red, paw on my sister's throat. Blood trails to the ground as he sinks his claws deeper. She let's out a wimper muffled by her own blood. Birch is standing a few feet off with rage burning in his eyes as an equally infuriated Firecracker stands in front of him keeping him from making a charge that would be too risky for the captive. An injured Chirp sits shakily beside them with blood dripping from her right shoulder all the way down to her paws. Leaf stumbles up behind me held up by Willow who has a torn ear not noticed untill now. Everyone has been attacked because of me. What have I done?
      "Just promise to come with me and be my Queen and they all can live." He proposes, becoming more deranged by the second.
"Peaches, no. We can find another-" Leaf starts coughing again.
"Just meet me by the Specific Ocean if you want your beloved sister to live." Oak leans down and picks up a limp Cricket by the scruff of her neck and drags her over the gravel twords the large pond. She let's out a soft wimper of pain then loses the ability to make a sound. I can see tears streaming down even from this distance.
With rage and determined my decision is declared, "Ok."
    Starting off twords the pond Leaf grabs my tail, "Please, I beg of you." Still coughing blood, tears fall from his eyes slammed shut with pain and mix with the mud and blood puddled under his paws. "I can't lose you!", He cries.
Stepping up to him I set my head on his shoulder getting blood in my fur. With more power in my voice then I've ever heard, "You won't".
       Marching towards the enemy with hatred filling my heart and murder consuming my mind everything turns red and I start running. Rain is pelting my back and gravel slicing into my paws. I slide to a stop about a foot away from him. He is holding my sister with her throat in his teeth. He smiles in a way that would make monsters run. CRUNCH! My sister's lifeless body hits the ground.
      I step: one, two, three, launch. His throat in my teeth and our paws leaving the ground. His blood fills my mouth and the freezing water fills my lungs as we hit the pond. Everything is dark. My mother is smiling at me. She purrs as she comes to greet me. I'm at peace.
    "I'm sorry my dear but you have to go. Your sisters need you and your mate is waiting for you." She purrs as she looks down at the water under us. For the first time I see my reflection. Green eyes bright with fire and fur matted from mud. Half my face is stained red with blood. Something tugs on the scruff of my neck and my lungs fight for air. Shivering and crying collapsed on the ground, warm fur presses against me. Leaf is grooming the water and blood out of my fur as if it was just rain. I drift into the blackness.
       The sun is in my fur and Leaf is by my side. A month has passed sense the falling of Cricket. Leaf is strong again and my younger sisters are playing at our paws. Leaf is the new King of Wild Gang and I'm his Queen. Everything is as it should be except Smoke, Crickets mate, never got past Crickets death. He went with my father to find my mother's murderer and came home to find his wife murdered. He ran off to the woods and some say he has been spotted with Raven trying to form their own gang with three kits. Boulder, my father never returned either. Smoke clamed he had been stricken with greif and threw himself off a cliff. At least he is with Mother again.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm going to continue the story with different points of view. Everyone has their story and I plan to continue the series from a different character's perspective. I hope everyone enjoys the story. This is the first story I have posted and I hope to get plenty of feedback that I can use to get better. Have a great day and plenty of adventure.