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| - A songfic by Eevee. Enjoy~ OA: 30 Seconds to Mars ________________________________ Above, the sky was clear. Brackenpaw gasped as the large black tom stepped forward, his warriors at his flanks. Is StarClan watching us? Brackenpaw's golden-brown fur bristled in shock and fear as Flamestar faced Blackstar. The young leader's eerie calmness made Brackenpaw feel nervous - more nervous than he should really feel in the time of threat. Flamestar meowed coldly, "Blackstar, step down now. We can prevent a battle. We can prevent death." "Hah! You're only afraid!" Blackstar replied, letting out an icy mrrow of laughter. Flamestar shook her head. "No, Blackstar. I am not afraid. It is you," she added, eyes gleaming, "that is afraid." Claws flashed in the moonlight. Brackenpaw let out a squeak of terror and shuffled back between two of his horrified Clanmates as Flamestar fell, jaws gaping, blood flowing out of the wound in her throat. Hawktail, Brackenpaw's mentor and deputy of LightningClan, padded to stand beside the dying Flamestar. He whispered into Brackenpaw's ear, "When I say run, run. Leave. Get away." Brackenpaw swallowed. "B-but, Hawktail..." "Just... please." the red-brown tom mewed softly, before stepping up to Blackstar, his dark tail lashing. "You've gone too far," he hissed, his eyes blazing with fury. The medicine cat, Pebblenose, bounded to stand between Hawktail and Flamestar. Flamestar's breathing slowly faded, faded, faded, until it finally just... Blackstar grinned evilly. "Your leader is a weakling. She had lives left. Not a life, lives, Hawktail, lives. LightningClan depended on her, and she depended on StarClan. Look where that got her." He looked at Flamestar, his eyes glinting. Blackstar's deputy, Gingerpelt, moved to his side. "StormClan will rule the forest." she declared. Her ginger fur fluffed out as she unsheathed her claws. Hawktail snarled, "Never!" "Tsk tsk. Hawktail. You want to keep your Clan safe," Blackstar challenged, "and the only way to do that is to join StormClan." He reached out with one of his large black paws. "What do you say?" Redtail sprang forward, beckoning his warriors to do the same. He screamed, "Run, Brackenpaw! And never look back!" He didn't look back. The sun pounded down onto his back, making him feel as if he were on fire. Brackenpaw's eyes stung with tears as he heard the fading battle yowls of LightningClan and StormClan. The golden-brown apprentice stopped when he came to a sheltered overhang. He crouched under the overhang, wishing he'd been brave and stayed with his Clanmates. He dozed off, troubled, his dreams full of screaming, wailing, snarling cats in battle, blood on the grass, turning it all red... He jerked awake. Panting hard, he went into panic as he realized he was somewhere strange. Then he remembered. The sun still shone, beating Brackenpaw with its fiery waves. The young apprentice yawned, and glanced around. A dusty-brown flash of fur crashed into him, claws digging into his flanks. Brackenpaw writhed in the cat's grip, then a familiar voice spoke. "Brackenpaw, it's only you! Thank StarClan, I thought it was one of them!" Brackenpaw leaped to his paws as he recognized the tom standing before him. "Tanglepaw!" he cried, delighted. The dusty-brown tom nodded. "Yep! Brackenpaw, I'm glad you're alive," Tanglepaw added, bumping his friend's shoulder with his head. "I thought they'd gotten you." "Well, they didn't." Brackenpaw purred. He glanced around. "Any others with you?" Tanglepaw looked distant and upset. "N-no... I'm the only one..." he whimpered. He looked away, his amber eyes dull. "Silverpaw and Palepaw were captured a-and... they were slaughtered. Their bellies were sliced open slowly, and their deaths were slow..." Tanglepaw now looked crestfallen. The violent rustle of leaves interrupted him. The toms looked up to see four cats, each from StormClan. One was an apprentice Brackenpaw knew from Gatherings, and his name was Foxpaw. The russet apprentice looked enraged, and he yowled, "Running away, huh!? I'll see you get proper punishment like your little friends!" A warrior silenced him. A long-furred silver she-cat stood beside the warrior. "Can't we just take them prisoner?" she asked, sounding desperate. The warrior snarled, "No! You heard Blackstar! 'Kill all the traitors,' he said." "Yeah, Mistypaw. Scared?" Foxpaw taunted, eyes glinting. "Tanglepaw's weaker than a kit, and so is that little Brackenpaw. He's weaker than an unborn kit!" Brackenpaw stiffened at the russet cat's taunting, digging his thorn-sharp claws into the ground. The silver apprentice hissed, "Shut up, Foxpaw!" She fluffed out her fur, and backed away from her DarkClan friends. Now she was standing between the LightningClan cats and the StormClan cats. "I think Blackstar's just lousy, foolish, bloodthirsty, and battle-hungry." With that, she stepped over to stand beside Tanglepaw. Foxpaw screeched, leaping straight at Brackenpaw. He slashed at Brackenpaw's face, not taking any care to see where he was clawing. In an instant, all the cats were spitting, clawing, and dodging, their fighting reckless. After moments of fur flying and blood running, the StormClan cats backed away. The warrior flicked his tail at a pure grey tom. "We need reinforcements, Greyflame!" he cried. "Yes, Oaktail." Greyflame nodded, one eye closed due to a long clawmark. "Let's go, Foxpaw!" Then he spat, "Leave the traitor!" Greyflame bolted, followed by a heavily bleeding Oaktail and a limping Foxpaw. Brackenpaw panted, "W-we did it." His side was bleeding slightly, his tailtip had been snapped off, and a notch in his ear was still bleeding. He looked at Tanglepaw and mewed, "You okay?" By the look of it, his friend was not okay. His right ear was shredded, his tail mangled, and his fur had criss-cross clawmarks all over it, and they bled heavily. Tanglepaw looked helpless as he staggered to stand beside Brackenpaw. "I-I'm f-f-fine..." The dusty-brown cat's fur was torn, and Brackenpaw noticed that he'd been grappling with the warrior, Greyflame. The three apprentices lay down at dusk after traveling. They were getting as far away from StormClan as they could. Tanglepaw held them back, his wounds making him limp. Mistypaw was explaining why she'd fought alongside the two toms. "I never liked Blackstar, and when he became leader, I couldn't stay. I always looked for a reason to leave, and when you two showed, I found the chance. And here I am." she finished. Brackenpaw nodded gratefully. "And thanks for helping us. Neither of us would've survived if it hadn't been for you." Mistypaw looked embarrassed. "It was nothing..." Tanglepaw, meanwhile, was asleep, snoring away. His wounds had been bound with cobweb and cleaned, and Brackenpaw had tried to use Rosewhisker's - the LightningClan medicine cat - method of healing wounds. It had worked, preventing the wounds from getting infected, but Brackenpaw wasn't sure if Tanglepaw would be able to travel any farther that quickly. A rustling in the bushes made Mistypaw and Brackenpaw look up tensely. Two cats emerged, both scared-looking. One was a dark brown tabby, the other a light grey tortoiseshell. Their eyes were dull, and they opened their jaws, trying to speak. Nothing sounded for a long time until the dark tabby released a high-pitched wail that didn't form any words Brackenpaw recognized. Both small cats hit the ground, eyes half-closed. Mistypaw eyed Brackenpaw, bewildered. "No wounds... no sickness..." she whispered. "But... how..." Brackenpaw murmured. Mistypaw eyed the two dead cats. Brackenpaw noticed that there was foam at their mouths, and he gasped. Mistypaw slowly turned to look at him. "Deathberries." The apprentices couldn't think for too long. A rumbling interrupted their thoughts. The two looked up to see the flashing eyes of a monster, heading straight for them. Mistypaw let out a cry as she raced for a tree, scrambling up its trunk. Brackenpaw nudged Tanglepaw to hs paws. "C'mon, c'mon! We have to run! Please!" Tanglepaw staggered toward a tree, looking half-asleep. The monster was advancing on them quickly, and Brackenpaw's instincts were telling him to abandon his friend. But he stuck with the other tom. He made sure Tanglepaw's claws had latched into the bark before Brackenpaw flung himself up to Mistypaw's branch, crouching beside her. The climb was well-timed, too; the monster passed right under the golden apprentice, buffeting his fur. He let out a sigh of relief. "Mistypaw? You okay?" Mistypaw's voice sounded tense. "Yeah. You're fine, I can tell. What about Tanglepaw?" Brackenpaw's eyes widened. "He was following me, he should be fine." The two leaped down from the tree. "Tanglepaw! Taaanglepaw!" they called out, looking for their friend. Brackenpaw heard a squeak of horror. He whirled around to see Mistypaw crouching beside a limp pile of brown fur. Heart in his throat, Brackenpaw slowly padded over. "No..." he whispered, tears in his eyes. "No..." He then wailed, "No! StarClan, no!" That night, after burying Tanglepaw and the two poisoned cats, the two walked in silence. They found an abandoned fox den when Mistypaw decided to call it a night.
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