𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐰'𝐬 𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐚𝐠𝐞 - seasons of revenge - book three

Chapter 15

"You may scorn me." Hareleap's lip curled. "You can call me names, tease me, attack me, holy StarClan, even kill me."

The cream she-cat regained for a heartbeat, taking a small step forward. "But you will never lay my mistakes upon my kits."

Rowanface pouted for a second at Hareleap, probably looking for a comeback. The camp was silent as cats watched the argument unfold, too alarmed to do anything.

"Your mistakes.." Rowanface gazed off for a second, examining her claws. "You've made a lot of them, haven't you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." She retorted bluntly, hoping to avoid the conversation. The pain was well masked in her voice.

"Lightpaw and Otterpaw." Rowanface said casually as if it was nothing. There was a collective amount of gasps from cats watching.

"It was your fault they drowned, your fault they died."

Hareleap felt a drop of guilt, and her heart shatter yet again. She shook her head wildly, unsheathing her claws. "No it wasn't me. Wasn't my fault."

Quietly she recited it, until she was pulled into a flashback.

"Watch out kits. Stay close to me." A pretty golden she-cat called out to her litter of three, who were eagerly splashing stones amongst the shores.

"We will!" One exclaimed, a squeaky pitch in his voice. His pelt was long, like hers, and a creamy-yellowing white that made him look like off-milk.

"Lightpaw, look at this! It's so cool!" A second young cat, her daughter, had picked up a small shiny pebble. It had a hole right through the middle of it. Cleverly, the she-cat had wrapped a reed frond through it, making it like a sort of charm.

"Very good, Otterpaw." The queen purred, bending down and allowing the brown tabby to place the reed charm delicately on her ear.

"I don't have anything that could represent me on that rock, or the reed frond. The reed frond is Reedpaw, and the light shines off it, so that's Lightpaw."

Her eyes suddenly fell in sadness, and the golden she-cat ran beside her, running her tail down her spine comfortingly.

"What do you want your warrior name to be? Maybe we can dedicate it to that?" Otterpaw's eyes lit up at her mother's suggestion, instantly out of her dwelling.

"Otterberry! That's what I'll be called." Her mother could feel as a juniper berry was hung upon her ear, this time with a thin and spindly cedar branch, that could bend pretty well.

"Very pretty."

Her last kit, a black tom, was perched upon the rocks, scanning water intently.
"Do you think I could fish, Hareleap?"

"Maybe you're a bit amateur yet." Hareleap giggled back at the black tom's awkward position  on the rock. His feet were desperately trying to cling on, his tail swinging jauntily.

Suddenly, there was a flicker of a shadow and a blur of a figure. Then the next thing they knew, Reedpaw was shoved into the river, his head almost completely submerged.

"No!" Otterpaw screeched, her happy posture a couple of heart beats ago going to pure horror. Hareleap tried to grab her tail as Otterpaw protruded into the swirling water, but it was too late. The whirls of the river were getting dangerously stronger, the coughs and splutters of her kits becoming more struggled.

"Stay here." She hissed to Lightpaw, who trembled and nodded, watching with pure terror as his siblings were consumed by the water yet again.

"I've got him!" Otterpaw yelled between gasps of water. Her younger sibling was grasped by the scruff, flailing around as she attempted to deliver him to shore. Hareleap surged forward, grabbing Reedpaw's scruff and dragging him backwards upon the shoreline, and went to turn back for Otterpaw, when the she cat was swept underneath the water again.

A pure thought of terror and horror went through Hareleap as she watched from the shore. She couldn't dive in. It was too dangerous. Ignoring Reedpaw's slight coughs, her eyes remained fixated on the hope of a brown tabby head to splutter back up some water. A flood of red suddenly burst in the water, and a large thump could be heard.

Hareleap almost sighed with relief when Otterpaw's fur came back up to the top of the water.
"Otterpaw! Swim over here!" She attempted to get her daughter to listen, but no response. It was then she noticed the blood. A large red wound was on the top of Otterpaw's head. Her green eyes were glazed over, blood streaming into the water beside her.

"She can't be dead!" Lightpaw suddenly screeched, running forward towards the water. She attempted to stop him. But too late. Lightpaw slipped on the rocks, which were covered with slimy moss. He stared at Hareleap in our horror as he stumbled, making full eye contact with his mother. There was a sickening crack, and the trickle of more blood.

"They're gone. Aren't they?" Reedpaw's small whimper brought everything crashing on her.

Her kits. Lightpaw's body splayed out on the rocks, head tricking blood. And Otterpaw's body thrashing in time with the water, blood clotted around her.

"They're gone." She swallowed with grief. But that was filled with wallowed anger.

Who was the figure?

After all the moons later, Hareleap had still been trying to find, but with no success. So she'd given up, deciding to mask herself away from everyone, until finding Pigeonfrost. But he was gone.

And she broke, because there was only such much more pain she could take.