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darktreeroots · 1 year

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Moonstar's Resolve

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Important characters will be revealed as you read.

Moonswallow is wrong. There is something wrong with her and she doesn’t know how to fix it. She has her father’s eyes and her father’s strength and her father’s red-hot blood. When she attacks she doesn’t do so with grace, just raw power. Her mother turns up her noise at her, her father has long grown disinterested with the novelty.

She pretends that none of it matters to her, she presses her eyes closer to her head, stands up taller, uses spare stones to sharpen her nail until any BroadleafClan cat that dares cross their border doesn’t have a chance to scream out to StarClan. They like her more anyhow, she hears them whisper in her ears as she lays out in the long grasses alone.

Moonswallow opens her eyes and sees that moonhigh is on its way. She knows that she’ll be torn apart a hundred times over for coming home too late but it’s not as if she’s coming home empty-handed. She has three rabbits to show for her efforts, and a squirrel that she’ll dig up tomorrow. It’s a good assurance if she doesn’t find something tomorrow. She picks up the rabbits by their ears, lifting them just high enough that they don’t drag against the ground as she makes it back to camp.

She doesn’t come across anyone in the grass, and if any cat had decided to chose it over the dens back at camp then she didn’t see them.

Moonswallow strolls into camp, rabbits aloft. She tries to keep quiet at first but a quick glance to the surrounding dens makes it clear that no one is awake any longer.

“It’s almost moonhigh.” Except for Whitebreeze, of course. The elder looks out at her with undisguised disdain with blue eyes so light they were nearly hidden in his white pelt. Moonswallow just bares her teeth around the rabbit ears and walks off to place the rabbits on the fresh kill pile. It’s rather skimpy at the moment so she knows that Needlestar won’t have a reason to complain about her coming back so late come morning.

Unlike Whitebreeze who was hurried coming out of the woven grass den, a thunderous expression on his face before he slammed his face into Moonswallow’s fur, breathing in deep.

“Stop that.” Moonswallow hisses, barely repressing the urge to claw her father, “Whatever you think I’m doing out there, it’s the same thing that everyone else is doing while they’re outside at night. When is the last time that you even saw Nightspark?”

“Nightspark is none of your concern.” Moonswallow swallows back her retort, but just barely. She longs to dig her claws into Whitebreeze’s neck and cast him away but doing that would be unacceptable. No cat was allowed to throw their clanmates, even if said clanmate was their horrible horrible father.

It would probably break a few bones.

Moonswallow swallows hard and digs her paws into the ground, trying to remind herself that the thought shouldn’t be so alluring.

“Are you done? Found no BroadleafClan scent on me?” She hisses as Whitebreeze finally steps away, looking unsatisfied, “As if I would ever fall for one of those forest dwellers?”

Whitebreeze’s nose twitches.

“Don’t be so sure about that.” He snaps at her. She rolls her eyes and turns her back on him, “And don’t forget that there are other things out there. That fox killed Dropstalk yesterday, we were able to confirm it this afternoon. His…remains were far out, closer to BroadleafClan’s Queen’s Edge than our own land.

That would be the twelve cat that the fox has killed: Mintbelly, Rabbitpaw, Haredash, Tumblewhisker, Sunnyspots, Clearpaw, Perchpaw, Sandyface, Sleekheart, Yellowtail, Ashpaw, and now Dropstalk. She would miss them all truly but—

“You think I need to be warned? The fox only attacks at night, and then only sleeping cats. It won’t ever catch me unaware.” Moonswallow flexes her muscles and puffs out her fur, the action taking her from one of the largest in the camp to the largest without doubt. The only cat would could possibly match her side was Longwillow who was far more fur than cat, “Watch out for yourself.” Moonswallow hisses.

“Mintbelly died during the day, I’ll have you know.” He lets out an irritated hiss, “So ungrateful—you’d die without a vigil.” Whitebreeze snarls at her retreating back as she enters the medicine den, “You should learn to keep some of your thoughts to yourself.”

Oh I am. Moonswallow thinks as she settles down and casts her tail over her eyes, effectively ending their conversation, If I wasn’t, then I would have told you that I wished the fox got you next.

“Moonswallow? Moooooonnnnswaaaaa—” Moonswallow hits Honeypaw with a well-aimed swat.

“Oh I’m sorry. You surprised me. I didn’t mean to hit you.” Moonswallow says as she fakes a yawn, “You shouldn’t be that close to me when I wake up or else I might do it again.”

“Sorry Moonswallow…” Honeypaw apologizes, huge green eyes watery, “But Needlestar wanted me to find you.” Moonswallow just manages to swallow her huge sigh as she starts to get to her feet.

“You go first. I’ll be right behind you.” Moonswallow nudges Honeypaw out of the warriors den before taking a moment to stretch out her limbs. There’s only a few cats in the den right now, but their scents tell her that they’ve already been out and have come back for a quick nap.

Isn’t it too early for a nap? Moonswallow trudges after Honeypaw as the morning sun hangs overhead. It isn’t sunhigh yet and won’t be for a little while—so for Moonswallow who went to sleep after moonhigh she’s barely conscious much less willing to deal with whatever Needlestar wants from her this time.

“Needlestar! I brought her!” Honeypaw calls out as she trods towards the small hole in the back of camp, an indent first found there by ancient HillClan and then expanded until it was a den big enough for a few cats to come in and have a meeting. Though today, their size was only two because Honeypaw quickly retreated after a tail flick from Needlestar, pushing back the grass barrier before leading them alone.

“So I’ve heard that you were out late last night.”

“Have you also heard of the three rabbits I brought?” Or did you think that StarClan itself had sent them flying along an errant breeze?

Needlestar gives her a level look with golden eyes, even though she tried so hard to keep her tone respectful, “You shouldn’t come back to camp so late.”

“You’re sound like Whitebreeze.” Moonswallow replies, “And have you seen Nightspark either? Because if you haven’t, then I’m going to begin worrying.”

“She’s on a border patrol.” Needlestar says, looking irritated but it’s not directed at her. Moonswallow doesn’t show how pleased she is on her face—Whitebreeze can only dig himself in deeper and deeper holes. It’s better not to listen to him and gives his words as much weight as a seed carried by the wind. Listening to him and his opinions is what made her life so skyless after Rainpaw died.

Needlestar falls into the same trap over and over again. It’s really pathetic.

“Well, you should know better.” Needlestar blusters, puffing out his fur. Moonswallow doesn’t roll her eyes, but just barely. This was also one of the worst parts of Needlestar—he never made mistakes cats just did things that caught him off guard and his reactions were never his fault, “And I want to send you on this afternoon’s border patrol.”

“Border patrol? With who?” Moonswallow says calmly through gritted teeth after a long inhale.

“I’ll leave that up to Burrpelt but—don’t make that face at me, Moonswallow. I can see it just fine. Have faith in Burrpelt, he is your deputy after all.”

The last time Burrpelt assigned me on patrol I was nearly abandoned for a hawk to take—and that was only a moon ago! Moonswallow holds her response if only because she knows that Needlestar already knows. That was the first thing she told him after the latest attempt on her life by her own clanmates. It’s gone beyond irritating and beyond emotion.

It’s like second nature for everyone involved—Burrpelt stupidly sends her out on a border patrol, her clanmates are so lost in the past that they ignore larger dangers and turn on her, a nearby predator takes note, and then her clanmates abandon her to the beast. Then she either just runs or takes a few swings at it to deter it and then runs all the way home to tell Needlestar and he then ignores the attempted murder.

It would be comically if it weren’t her life in the balance. StarClan’s sake, Rainpaw would have been the type of cat to laugh in their faces after it was all done.

But she was not Rainpaw. Moonswallow turns with a sneer and leaves the den. She doesn’t stop for a moment before she digs her face into the fresh-kill pile and grabs one of the her rabbits before stalking off to the corner of camp nearest the apprentice den. It was the part of their territory that she was safest, other than the lands near MountainClan territory.

The apprentices knew less. They knew less of Moonswallow and Whitebreeze and Nightspark and Rainpaw and Rainbright. The younger ones wouldn’t even recognize their names, the older ones have been around her long enough to know that she isn’t like the stories the elders used to tell.

She wishes that she found this place earlier. She wishes that her father retired earlier, she wishes that she was able to put up with the cruel stories and sharp glares of the elders for less time.

Sometimes, she even wishes that Rainpaw and Whitebreeze and Rainbright never existed.

She knows that means nothingness for her as well, a death without life.

Moonswallow is unwilling to accept that. She wants to exist without them. Not not exist at all.

“Moonswallow!” Honeypaw calls out, prancing over with Gorsepaw—the apprentice of her kin—and Sunpaw right on their heels, “Can I have some?”

“Of course.” Moonswallow purrs, leaving some space for the smaller cats and ignoring all of the angry stares she gets for daring to be close to children.

There is a fox on CloudClan territory that lusts for cat blood. It attacks quickly in the dead of night and brutalizes any cat that happens to find itself under its blunt claws and large teeth. The threat of the fox circles over every cat, but they all pretend it doesn’t. They all pretend that their traditions can survive like this, they all pretend that they can still sleep in the fields and listen to StarClan from afar instead of being sent there directly.

They all pretend that it is through StarClan’s power that they are able to continue on, as if the event doesn’t prove that StarClan’s power is lacking.

If I die here, then all my faith has been for naught. Moonswallow thinks to herself as her head perks up, ears closing to whatever years-belated argument Fognight and Slipwhistle were having with her as she picks up the scent of fox on the breeze.

It’s faint, very faint but as Moonswallow turns in that direction she sees that the fox is there, only a few fox-lengths away. Hunting them.

Hunting her.

“Run.” Moonswallow whispers, backing up slowly as she watches the fox. Slowly, the rest of the patrol comes to stare at it, freezing one by one as the fox moves closer. It’s clearly their fox, no other fox would have those many scratches and ever dare to mess with a cat ever again. She can see the hunger in each eyes, to it it’s always triumphant.

“Run home!” Coppergale calls out but Moonswallow doesn’t have the time to correct the younger cat before he turns tail and runs, with Hopmist and the rest of the patrol not far behind. Moonswallow curses under her breath and unsheathes her claws.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she can see Hopmist hesitate for a split second. Moonswallow doesn’t keep him waiting, quickly lashing at empty air for a moment before turning tail and fleeing, hoping that was enough to deter the fox—after all, didn’t it only attack at night? She didn’t need to see Hopmist’s eyes widening to know that it didn’t work, she can hear the fox on her tail.

It’s panting with excitement, nearly cackling behind her.

She curses the soft dirt under her feet, the kind that allowed BroadleafClan’s forest to flourish but was now sticking to her feet, flying out behind her in some clumps. The only good part about is that they seemed to be hitting the fox, when Moonswallow glances behind her the fox has a few clumps of dirt on its fur. It looks no less eager for the chance, however.

“Don’t run back to camp!” Moonswallow screeches as she catches up with her Clanmates with her long strides, “It’ll just follow us back!” Coppergale looks horrified, clearly not having considered that the camp was only a fortress against other Clans.

“Then what?” Hopmist asks, swiftly leaping over a log. Moonswallow is a moment after them, and sees the vast prairies outstretched in front of them with no small amount of trepidation, “What should we do?”

“Don’t ask her?!”

When Moonswallow was little, all she wanted to do was be like her mother. She looked exactly like her mother, even down to the fluff in her ears.

There were five of them for only a moment: Whitebreeze, a well-respected senior warrior with a cool head and cunning mind, Rainbright, a beautiful warrior who had more charisma than even Needlestar who half the Clan would give up their lives for, and then the children. Nightspark, who looked nothing like the pure white Rainbright or the white tabby Whitebreeze. Instead she was a pure black, a remnant from Rainbright’s maternal grandmother.

Moonswallow though? She was an exact carbon copy of their mother.

So was Rainpaw.

And then Rainbright died. Not immediately, not immediately. It took a few moons for the life to drain from her mother. Whitebreeze decided that she should live on in the cat that was most like her, the one that shared her slight frame.

It might as well have been a curse.

Rainbright was beautiful and charismatic but also cruel and petty and selfish. She took from the cats around her and then did it again and again. Rainpaw was the same, more than willing to convince Thistledawn and Whispclaw to leave their mother’s side and starve so Rainpaw could have some more milk for herself.

And Moonswallow followed her.

Because Rainpaw was Rainbright. And Rainbright was the cat she should grow up to be, to replace the cat they killed. Nightspark didn’t follow them—Whitebreeze had little care to give the cat that couldn’t replace the love of his life.

It is hard for a cat to know when they have their face pressed into the mud when there wasn’t claws in their back to keep them down.

Rainpaw…used ever single cat around her without abandon. There wasn’t a second of hesitation as she lead a cat on just so they could give them their cats just for Rainpaw to grow bored of them and move onto a cat that interested her more. Moonswallow couldn’t even list all the cats this happened to, it was probably the entire Clan.

And it’s not like Mintbelly ever tried to stop her, instead he seemed to annoy all the popularity that came with his apprentice. Maybe he knew what she was doing, maybe he didn’t.

Maybe him letting her get carried away by a hawk that day was a bit of revenge.

For all the cats she’d hurt.

For making him miss his chance to become deputy by Rainpaw purposely failing her final assessment over and over again, simply for the sake of it.

Or maybe it was just an accident.

It’s not like Whitebreeze ever took it like that—as far as her father was ever concerned, Mintbelly killed the cat he loved all over again. Not Rainpaw, no, Rainbright. Moonswallow doesn’t know if Whitebreeze ever saw Rainpaw as her own cat and not a replacement.

Moonswallow doesn’t know that if Whitebreeze had gone about things a different way, then he might have gotten Rainbright all over again. In her.

She had been a petty, vicious, cruel child because that is what she thought she must be. It’s what she was told to do, it’s how she was told to live. She was to follow Rainpaw in every thing she did and support her blindly, but always make her look better than Moonswallow. Moonswallow should trip over her own feet, grow too large, have a figure far larger than the rest of her family to support Rainpaw. Rainbright. Or rather, the amalgamation that was her mother her sister and herself.

Moonswallow doesn’t know if Rainpaw purposely meant to fail her first assessment. Maybe Rainpaw would have told her if that was planned. Or maybe she wouldn’t have.

Moonswallow never got to know Rainbright. She never got to know Rainpaw either.

Moonswallow could only claim to know a fake cat that lived in between those two cats.

And she could only claim that she no longer deserved the hatred that she got from the Rainpaw—Rainbright creature because she had tried to make up for it every day for several seasons straight. She lowered her head she went on patrols she was kinder she was selfless.

It was hard to repair the damage when she didn’t have the charisma that her mother and her sister had. The elder warriors started turning on her, feeling betrayed for what Rainbright had done and made them do in the past, the warriors that she had grown up with had started digging their claws into her heels, trying to drag Rainpaw out of her.

Trying to fall back into Rainbright’s orbit.

They also turned on her soon enough.

So now. She has no one but Nightspark but then even barely.

Moonswallow wishes—she wishes that Rainbright and Whitebreeze didn’t exist.

She wishes that Rainpaw existed as her own cat.

Moonswallow wishes for the impossible so she grabs her dreams in her jaws and shoves them down her throat.

“Separate.” Moonswallow breathes before turning and charging along the edge of the treeline, dancing back and forth across the BroadleafClan border. She knows that the rest of the patrol scatters in directions back towards camp. She planned on it, actually.

All she had to do was throw off this fox. And while she might not be the fastest runner or like the damp underground that made up BroadleafClan land, she was the cat with the sharpest claws.

Moonswallow pushes herself harder and harder, feeling the hot breath of the fox on her haunches. Of course it chose her, she’s the biggest meal after all. She might be a struggle to get down, and taste a bit like gristle after all this running but it’s better some cat than no cat, right? Moonswallow has been hunter before, she understands what the fox is thinking.

She sneers like a rabbit as she scrambles up the first tree she can find. It’s hardly more than a bush but it’s sturdy enough to support her weight and while the branch she chose might be low it doesn’t threaten to break under her weight and it’s just low enough for the fox to jump up and get a faceful of her claws.

Moonswallow feels her claws dig into the fox’s eye cavity, going in one end and then hitting the other side. She quickly lifts her paw to prevent it from getting lodged in its head, it comes out with parts of the fox’s eyes clinging to her claws. Viscous fluid runs down her paws, presses against the branch and squelches when Moonswallow takes a step back as the fox howls and howls.

It paws at its shredded eye, as if it could heal it with enough effort.

Then its whimpers dies off and it just. Looks at her with its black eye. No longer with malice. Maybe with respect.

Moonswallow gives it a quiet hiss.

The fox gives her a low bark in return. And then its head suddenly snaps up, looking at the place where BroadleafClan scent has begun to grow stronger and approach them. It takes a little step away and Moonswallow backs onto the trunk to get back on the ground and get back on her land before she can see just how welcoming Morningstar is right now.

The fox lunges at her, crossing the distance between them in the blink of an eye but Moonswallow is back up the tree in the flash of a swipe, sneering at the fox as it bangs its head into the tree a tail length to the left of where she had been.

She hisses at it once more, loud and drawn-out, puffing out her fur and showing off her claws.

The fox slinks away as they start to hear BroadleafClan on the breeze. She waits for it to be gone deeper into the forest before she jumps off the tree and runs back across the border. Her paws ache like they’ve never ached before, she swears that she can feel splinters in all her pads.

“Are you the trespasser?” A cat calls out to her from behind before she can crest a hill.

“Sorry I didn’t get torn apart by a fox to keep your borders pure!” Moonswallow spits back before she climbs over the hill and the other cat is blocked from her view.

No one expected her to survive.

When she strolls into camp, exhausted and with blood on her claws, the first thing several cats do is stare at her blankly. She doesn’t pay them any mind as she stumbles toward the medicine den, watching her back left and front leg paws which have begun throbbing. She’s not sure that when she lost a claw—was it before or after she took out the fox’s eye? Or was her missing claw lodged somewhere in that fox’s face?

“—Swallow! Moonswallow!” Someone calls out but she can’t place it until she sees her sister running over to her, barely managing to skid to a halt before slamming directly into her, “You…You’re alive?”

Moonswallow smiles and gets a scratch to the heart when Nightspark flinches. She has the same smile that Rainpaw had.

“Unless you believe that the wind is able to bring me into camp in this condition, then no. If you don’t believe that—”

“Don’t play with me, Moonswallow.” Nightspark cuts her off, voice choked, “Don’t look at me like that don’t talk to me like that. I hate it.” Nightspark lets out a fake laugh, “It makes it really hard to be glad that you’ve come back when you sound like her—that. Like that.”

Moonswallow simply bows her head.

“Go to the medicine den.” Nightspark says, still for a second before she pushes her pelt against Moonswallow’s, “I’ll help you.”

“I don’t need help.”

“You’re getting it.” Nightspark snaps. Moonswallow can feel her tail lashing, “And you can step back.”

Hopmist, who had been slowly creeping up, stops in his tracks.

“Nightspark—” He starts, but the cat he had fancied for seasons easily turns her back on him, forcing Moonswallow to rest most of her weight on her. He calls out her name on last time, but Nightspark is too busy following Moonswallow into the small grass-covered overhang that was the medicine den.

“So she—”

“Finish that sentence, Spiralheart.” Nightspark hisses. The orange cat gives her a shocked look before cowering away under her fiery glare. He keeps his head lowered as he looks Moonswallow over with more care than he ever has.

“I’ve also lost a claw.” Moonswallow mumbles as Spiralheart inspects all of her feet, tutting quietly under his breath.

“I can’t tell if you came out of this worse for wear or far better than expected.” Spiralheart mutters, as he drops her back paw, “She’ll live.” He tells Nightspark.

“Of course I’ll live.” Moonswallow remarks with a eye roll.

“You say that without knowing how much blood is on you.” Spiralheart replies with just as much snark, “Just because you weren’t mauled doesn’t mean that the fox didn’t scratch you. Your haunches are torn up.”

“Oh, are they?” Moonswallow twists to see and just as she was told, the white fur on her behind has been stained red, “Oh.”

“I suspect that it managed to get some scratches while you were fleeing. Do you feel it?”

“My back legs, or the scratches.”

“Both.”

“I feel all my legs.” Moonswallow wiggles her toes just to make sure, “But I don’t—wait.” Moonswallow lets out a sharp hiss as pain slowly starts to creep in. It only grows stronger the longer she looks at the blood, “I feel them both.”

“I’m surprised that you’ve held off the pain for this long.” Spiralheart remarks as he grabs a bundle of herbs and starts to make a poultice, “Most warriors would have been sobbing for their families by now.”

Moonswallow and Nightspark share a glance.

“Ah. Apologies.” Spiralheart says before applying the poultice and turning away. She hisses as the sting seeps into her skin, “I’ll leave you to it. And I’ll direct some…visitors your…way…” Spiralheart understands that it’s better to stop talking and slinks off before he can embarrass himself any further.

“He’s a fool.” Nightspark mutters.

“A knowledgeable fool.” Moonswallow corrects, “Yewflower never bothers to check my pads.”

Nightspark gives Moonswallow a concerned look, but wisely chooses not to follow up on that statement and instead pivots to, “What happened?”

“I ran.” Moonswallow begins before giving Nightspark a short account of what happened. Her sister only interrupts to ask if the fox had gotten any BroadleafClan cats, Moonswallow pushes away her worry. Their fox had always liked CloudClan blood most. Or perhaps it liked the blood of all cats and BroadleafClan simply had never made it known.

Moonswallow wouldn’t put it past the new Morningstar, at least.

“Once Spiralheart tells me how long I have to spend in camp, then I’ll move out of here and back to the warriors dens. No more patrols for a few days…or at least until Burrpelt forgets that I was injured the last time he sent me on patrol and tries to do it again.”

Try to have more faith in him. Nightspark had said the first time. She didn’t say it the second. Nightspark was not stupid.

“They’re all idiots. I could do their job better than them.” Nightspark hisses.

“You give yourself too little credit.” Moonswallow says with a laugh, “I could be them better than them. They’re incompetent, Burrpelt never remembers anything and Needlestar never thinks about what he does remember. They’re embarrassments to CloudClan.”

So what is it about them that keeps me here?

Loyalty, of course. Moonswallow wasn’t well respected by her Clanmates, nor was she ever willing to become a queen and make a family of her own, but she wasn’t willing to leave either. Spending just a few moons in the nursery, or even less if her potential mate was willing to take her place once the children were weaned was a thought that hurt more than the wounds that covered her.

“What are you thinking about?”

“Toms.”

“Ooookay.” Nightspark says and Moonswallow rolls her eyes, ready to change the subject before Nightspark shifts from sitting beside her to on top of her, “What about toms?”

“About how they’re all idiots.” Moonswallow snaps but she doesn’t thrash to get her sister off, “And how I could be a tom better than them easily. It wouldn’t even take any effort. I have the frame, I have the strength.”

Nightspark stays quiet.

“I could be them better than they could be themselves.” She flexes her paw, “Though I guess that’s a common thought?”

Nightspark’s head shake says a lot.

There is a fox on the edges of their territory and it must have infected her because she’s grown wild and rabid in the ensuing moons.

It’s a chance noticed by even the youngest apprentices, because the cat they had always known as so mild has shown off his fangs. It takes Honeypaw the least amount of time to notice that Nightspark no longer referred to him as a brother, and when Honeypaw does something, the rest of the apprentices follow. Or rather, Honeythistle and the young warriors.

The fact spreads through the clan slowly, that the largest she-cat was now the largest tom. It helped that once you knew, he wouldn’t tell you twice. Any mistake made would get you a face full of claws.

Spiralheart didn’t like it, and Yewflower was ambivalent, but their new apprentice, Tallpaw, was outwardly terrified of him. Moonswallow didn’t mind—after all, he was only doing what he needed to. Others negative thoughts and emotions had nothing to do with him.

He always felt as if there was something wrong with him.

Instead, he knows that there’s nothing wrong with him. There has never been anything wrong with him, his existence was never incorrect. What was incorrect about him was the corpse that had been layered over his existence, rotten blood flowing into his eyes and obscuring his vision.

“My daughter has grown haughty and annoying.” Whitebreeze remarks as Moonswallow sticks his head into the elder’s den. He sits alone because the rest of the elders are sunning themselves and no one wanted to invite him. After all, there is one cat in which Rainbright lives.

He hopes that his father chokes on the fetid blood. He’s hoped that for seasons actually, but he has never gotten what he wanted.

“Your daughter wants to go out on a walk with you.” Moonswallow says, watching his father as he sighs and gets up for his woven nest. It strikes Moonswallow just how similar they look as they leave camp. He can’t imagine that they don’t look like the exact same camp as they leave camp. His father has his scars, but they’re mostly hidden by the white fur. The same can be said for Moonswallow.

As they walk over the hills to the edges of the territory near BroadleafClan, Moonswallow cannot imagine that most creatures would have a way to separate them.

“The stench of BroadleafClan is awful.” Whitebreeze mutters because even his old and worn nose can recognize their enemy. A bit late however, because they are only a few tail-lengths from BroadleafClan now. In fact, when Whitebreeze had been a warrior, this patch of land belonged to BroadleafClan despite being flat land. It had only been regained recently, in part due to the unknown factor that had interrupted the battle.

“Father, what did you first feed to the fox?”

Whitebreeze pauses for a moment, eyes wide before he recollects himself, “What on earth are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about the fact that you fed the fox that keeps on killing our Clanmates.” Moonswallow says calmly, putting his tail over his feet as he sits down. He keeps his gaze pinned on his father as his fur begins to puff out.

“I did nothing of the such!”

“You knew when Mintbelly was killed. Remember you told me that, moons ago? That Mintbelly had been killed during the day, and thus I should be careful?” He lowers his eyes until he’s glaring, “How could you have known that? We don’t know when cats are killed, just that its usually cats that sleep outside and that we tend to find them in the morning.”

“Just because Honeythistle got mauled during the battle doesn’t mean—”

Moonswallow mimics him for a moment, “‘Mintbelly got Rainbright killed!’ Isn’t that what you thought of him?” He tilts his head at his father, “After all, aren’t you the reason that cats killed by the fox don’t get a vigil? Weren’t you the one that said that they shouldn’t get one until the fox had been dispelled?”

He lets out a short, barking laugh, “Didn’t you say you’d dedicate yourself to killing the fox? Didn’t you retire early soon after?”

“I am not the only one—”

“I know you’re not the only coward—” Moonswallow snaps, “But it makes too much sense, doesn’t it father?”

“You’re being a raving she-cat.”

Moonswallow’s ear twitches, “I would say that I’m being quite logic. After all, I believe it would have attacked you by now if it truly didn’t know you.”

“What—” Whitebreeze starts before he snaps around, staring at the fox a few tail-lengths away that Moonswallow had glanced at. His fur puffs out, instinctively hissing and unsheathing his claws, “Rainbright. Run.”

“Hmpf. ‘Rainbright’.” Moonswallow lifts his tail from his paws, revealing his unsheathed claws, “Even now, you’re obsessed with your mate. You should have joined her long ago.”

“Are you suggesting that I kill myself?” Whitebreeze says, whipping back against to glare at him. The speed with which the haughty look on his face fades was glee-inducing. Moonswallow playfully flexes his paw, letting his claws glint in the light.

“Yes, I was. It would have been easier for you. But, this is more fun for me.” Moonswallow sneers before he lashes his father’s face, tearing his muzzle and causing it to spurt out blood. The fox is hungry. The fox is always hungry, always unsatisfied, half blinded by him and fully blinded by all the corpses that hang over it.

The fox lunges for Whitebreeze and barely misses tearing out his throat.

Moonswallow should have noticed sooner why Whitebreeze’s mention of Mintbelly was so suspicious. Most foxes weren’t as torn up as their fox, yet it only attacked at night? The scars must have been from Mintbelly, conscious as he was led into a trap. It matches with the damage that Whitebreeze is doing right now, desperately lashing out his paws to keep the fox from closing the distance between them.

The fox grabs Whitebreeze’s paw and yanks it, unbalancing him.

His father screams, lashing out with all his remaining limbs.

“This is for Mintbelly, Rabbitpaw, Haredash, Tumblewhisker, Sunnyspots, Clearpaw, Perchpaw, Sandyface, Sleekheart, Yellowtail, Ashpaw, and Dropstalk. This is also for Rainpaw. This is also for Nightspark. This is also for me.” Moonswallow hisses at his father as the fox flips him over and tears his stomach out. His words can barely be heard over his father’s screaming, “This is our revenge.”

“Please…Rainbright…” Whitebreeze calls out one last time before the fox’s jaws close over his heart.

Moonswallow watches passively for only a moment. The fox begins to eat his father, fully tamed by him. The fox doesn’t expect for Moonswallow to leap on it a moment later, using his weight to crush the weakened animal before closing his mouth around his neck before snapping it. The fox falls limb. A fox rises and drags the corpse back home.

Whitebreeze is left to rot.

The morning after the vigil, Moonswallow slinks into Needlestar’s den without being asked. His leader starts, ready to attack before he realizes who it is.

“Oh, Moonswallow, what—”

“I want to be deputy. I don’t care if I’m not immediately after Burrpelt, but I am going to be leader after you.” Moonswallow turns and leaves the den. He takes a nest at the edge of the warrior’s den, as usual. Though not as many cats try to avoid him now.

Nightspark lies right beside him.

Nightspark comes over the hill and stops mid-pawstep. She can’t see her brother through the thin layer of snow because the sun hasn’t risen yet, but she knows her scent like the back of her paws. Even the cold air can’t hide his scent from a few fox-lengths away.

“So, this is how you’ve been spending your time?” The deputy of CloudClan says, purposely flicking his tail to get his sister’s attention, “With a BroadleafClan cat?”

“Ah, well.” Nightspark replies, lowering her ears in embarrassment, “It’s not been much so far. Just a bit of time we’ve been spending together.”

“It’s been seasons.” Moonswallow corrects. Nightspark glowers at him, “If you want to lie to me and say that I’m incorrect, then do so.”

“Well, fine. Maybe it was! What is it to you! It’s not like you would ever want a mate.” Nightspark bites out, “If you want to yell at me, yell at me back in camp. It’s cold out here.”

“No.” Moonswallow says. The first few beams of light begin to appear on the horizon, stars disappearing as he continues to speak, “As you have just admitted to breaking code two: loyalty to your clan above all else, I am invoking code ten.”

“You can’t do that!” Nightspark yowls, puffing out her fur until she’s a fluffy slice of the night, “You aren’t the leader. Your word isn’t the code.”

“Do you want to admit your crimes to Needlestar? Do you think he’s going to make a separate decision?”

“I—” Nightspark begins before turning away, shaking her head as if there’s something out of balance inside, “Moonswallow. I am your sister. Your only sister. You cannot invoke code nine and claim the entire clan is more important than me!”

“Is it not?”

Nightspark steps back as if Moonswallow just clawed her, “Moonswallow—”

“I want you gone from our territory by the next dawn.” Moonswallow gets to his feet and dusts off some snow, “For you are no longer a CloudClan cat.” Nightspark takes a few steps backwards, staring like she expects Moonswallow to take his words back.

Then, she turns and runs.

Moonswallow bites back his emotions and turns before trudging back to camp.

“You can climb it, if you want.” The MountainClan cat says. Moonswallow didn’t ask their name and the cat never offered it. They were an errant cat, for the rest of the clan had been in the area. Moonswallow had seen them from a distance as they were approaching, but only a single cat had approached them.

Their pond scum green eyes were disconcerting.

“There’s no need to climb it.” Yewflower responds in turn. The MountainClan cat takes no note of her irritation and instead just flicks their eye and turns around.

“Good luck, Moonstar.” The cat says before leaving. Moonswallow unsheathes his claws, ready to attack the cat for having such information but the elderly Spiralheart interrupts him.

“The dead speak in the ears of MountainClan cats.” He says, “What you are about to see is something that they live with all the time. In a way, of course, but—”

“Doesn’t matter.” Moonswallow interrupts as he approaches the silver tree that stretches up so high that when he tries to look to its top, he ends on falling on his back instead. He hisses and scrambles to his feet quickly, baring his teeth at Yewflower and Spiralheart so they will never mention this to every one.

“Just press your nose to it.” Spiralheart says, “And try to relax.”

Try to relax. Moonstar thinks to himself with a derisive snort as he presses his nose up against the tree, I haven’t been relaxed in—

When he opens his eyes, they’re filled with stars. He’s back in camp, but instead of the midday sun overhead, there’s just stars. The moon hangs high overhead, looking straight down at him. There are dozens of ghostly cats lining the walls of the hollow, and with a start, Moonswallow realizes that he’s in the complete center of camp.

“Moonswallow.” He whips around to see an unfamiliar face looking back at him, “I am Galescrap. When I was younger, I was your mother’s first friend. Bow your head.” Moonswallow does as he’s told, and barely manages not to flinch as the wave of emotion that settles in him when Galescrap puts her muzzle against his head, “With this life, I give you self-respect. Use it well, you aren’t like most cats. Not in emotion, nor in action.”

Galescrap gives him a heavy look for a moment.

He knows she’s waiting for an apology.

“Who is next?” Moonswallow calls out, turning around to look at the collected cats. When he looks back, Galescrap is no longer there, and Gorsespeckle has taken her place.

“Don’t turn away.” The younger cat tells her, “Or else I’m going to go into Honeythistle’s dreams and tell her that she should have taken your offer to become deputy because her leader is a coward.”

“Don’t you dare.” Moonswallow snaps back, but there’s no anger in his voice as he gazes on at Honeythistle’s dear twin brother.

“Bow your head, Moonstar.”

“Don’t call me that yet.” Moonswallow says, before doing as he ordered as planting his claws in the ground as an unknown emotion sweeps through him.

“With this life, I give you a renewed ability to make connections with other cats. Use it well.” Gorsespeckle peels away to look at him, “I know now why Nightspark had to leave. While I don’t hold that against you—you were a good mentor to me as her replacement—I can’t help but worry about you. You have no kin left, so you must regard the entire clan as your family.”

“I will.”

Gorsespeckle nods, looking to Moonswallow’s side.

He comes to face the next cat and recoils as he looks into a mirror.

“You.”

“Me.” Rainbright says. She has his voice. She has his face.

Moonswallow flexes his muscles, making their only disparity even larger.

“If you react to me this way, then you’re going to be even more upset later.” Rainbright says, voice soft and lilting and cloyingly sweet, “Lower your head, my erstwhile son.”

Moonswallow thinks about rejecting this life for a long time. He never knew his mother, not really. But despite that, Moonswallow had to live under her shadow for most of his life. To this day, he worries about the rotten blood in his eyes.

In the end though, he does lower his head.

“With this life, I give you the ability to know when you’ve being taken for a fool.” The floor drops out from under Moonswallow and he nearly sinks to the floor and yowls. There’s no ground, nothing to hold him upright. All there is is him, that’s the only cat he can look to for support, “Use this life to support your clan. You are leader, you must not fall to simple half-truths.”

Rainbright looks down at him, blue eyes glinting with no emotion underneath.

His mother leaves him and Moonswallow is barely able to remain on his feet.

“Behind you.” A similarly soft voice says.

“No. No. Not you.” Moonswallow cries out, ready to fall to his feet before that same cat comes to support him, keeping him upright.

“I should have expected this.” Rainpaw says, looking exactly like Rainbright looking exactly like their mother looking exactly like Moonswallow, “But it still hurts you know, to have my own brother despise me so.”

“You were awful.” Moonswallow says, lowering his head and turning away but before he can reject this life, Rainpaw touches her nose to his forehead.

He braces himself to be swept off his feet, but instead comes a gentle feeling that reinforces his connection to the ground.

“With this life, I give you kindness. Use it, both to supplement what you were so cruelly deprived of, and to pass on to the future of your clan. Though, mostly the first.” Rainpaw says, as she steps back with a bright smile, “Can you blame me for being a bit selfish if it’s for my little brother?”

“Rainpaw—” Moonswallow reaches out for his big sister as she steps away.

“My name isn’t Rainpaw.” The cat says.

“Then what?” Moonswallow asks.

The cat opens her mouth, and says nothing. Her eyes twinkle when Moonswallow understands what her big sister had done.

“Thank you, Nameless.” Moonswallow says earnestly. The pure white cat disappears back into the ranks of StarClan.

“Well, I have to follow that up.” Says the next cat.

Moonswallow bows his head to his former mentor without asking, and Emberdot sighs, “You’ve gotten so straightforward. To imagine that I would ask that of you so often yet miss it when I get it. With this life, I give you clearsightedness. Use it to protect your clan from threats, don’t rush into situations.”

Moonswallow nods. That life hadn’t even hurt. Instead it felt like if he wanted, he could look all the wall to the Moonhole and see his body sleeping at the roots.

Sparkpaw comes up next. Moonswallow is shocked to see the other cat. They had been apprentices together, but the sickly cat had been easily taken by sickness in apprenticehood. He hadn’t thought about the yellow cat in many seasons.

Moonswallow lowers his head, “With this life, I give you resilience. May not a single life go by without a fight.”

Moonswallow nods, with renewed energy. He feels as if he could take the fox on all over again, could tear it to pieces without a seconds hesitation. He flexes his paws in wonder, revealing in the strength that runs through his veins.

“I know that you aren’t happy to see me.” Says the next cat as they stroll up as if they hadn’t tortured Moonswallow as long as he was alive, “But I have an important lesson for you. One that actually matters this time.”

“Get on with it.” Moonswallow grunts, lowering his head so Rabbitleaf, one of the elders who lived alongside Whitebreeze and tortured him ever second he could, could give him a life.

“With this life, I give you bravery. Use it well to defend your clan.”

Moonswallow gives Rabbitleaf a dull look.

“Look,” Rabbitleaf explains, “I know that you’re braver than I ever was. But someone needs to give you a life for that because it’s basically tradition and I was the one who volunteered.

“Dear StarClan, you talk too much.” The next cat says, interrupting Rabbitleaf before he can talk himself in circles. Mintbelly bows his head first before Moonswallow can. When he raises his head, the satisfied smirk there is surprising, “Rabbitleaf just wanted to be part of this because he thought it would be exciting.”

“Well, I’m here for something important. Lower your head.” Moonswallow does as he commands, and when his muzzle touches Moonswallow’s forehead, he jerks. This life hurts, which isn’t uncommon, but then it settles in his gut and feels…familiar, “With this life, I give you vengeance. Use it to make sure that crimes don’t go unpunished. Never let someone get away from justice. Chase them to the ends of the world if you need to.”

“Mintbelly—”

“Thank you.” The tom says, as he walks away, “By only wish is that you had gotten him sooner.”

Before he can respond, Needlestar is there to take his place.

“I know.” Needlestar begins, “I failed you, time and time again. But, it is only customary for me to give you your final life.”

“Get on with it then.” Moonswallow says before lowering his head.

“With this life, I give you strength.” Needlestar says, gently pressing his head to Moonswallow’s. Vitality flows through her, and what he had mistaken as strength from Sparksky is absolutely nothing in comparison.

Needlestar steps back and Moonswallow stands tall, “I hail you by your new name, Moonstar. Your old life is no more. You have now received the nine lives of a leader, and StarClan grants you the guardianship of CloudClan. Defend it well; care for young and old; honor your ancestors and the traditions of the warrior code; live each life with pride and dignity. Do you promise to do so?”

“I do.” Moonstar replies, raising his head and standing up high.

StarClan calls out his name. It’s still ringing in his head as he opens his eyes.

Moonstar curls his paw together, before closing it. Then he gets up and commands his two medicine cats to get him back home. He has a clan to run.

#warriors au #warrior cats #allseeing eyes close #warrior cats oc #kitty talking #moonstar

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